Timeline
by floorspace24
Summary: In her defence, Haruno Sakura did not intend on razing the entire timestream to the ground. But, meh, they had it coming. AU Time-travel
1. One

Chapter One

* * *

Kakashi Hatake awoke with a start and he didn't know why. Naruto's loud snoring aside, the house was quiet and peaceful. Outside, he could hear the slow lapping of water against the beams supporting the house. A slight chill was seeping into his bones.

Wave country weather did not agree with Kakashi's Konohan preferences.

He glanced to his right, where two boys were huddled together in their sleep. With rising amusement, he noticed that Naruto was spooning Sasuke with great enthusiasm that belied their boyhood rivalry.

He chuckled quietly, wondering how either boy would react to waking up in such a predicament.

A sharp scream pierced through his musings.

Kakashi reacted before he could think. Using a sliver of chakra, he transported himself straight into the adjoining room from where the scream emanated. Heart in his throat, he berated himself for letting Sakura sleep separately.

Taking in the room at large, he quickly took note of the closed window in front of him as well as the similarly closed door behind him. Brandishing a kunai, the only weapon he brought with him, Kakashi took a step towards the center of the room.

Closer to the window, and slightly off center in the small room lay two futons, each meant to be occupied by the only two women in the house. Weak moonlight coming in through the window aided his sight.

With growing incredulity, Kakashi saw that Sakura has pinned a frightened Tsunami, the lady of the house, to the futon on which she lay.

"Where am I?" Sakura hissed quietly, forearm choking Tsunami, pushing her deeper into the cushioning. "Who are you and why have you brought me here?"

Tsunami, for her part, could only whimper in reply. Kakashi intervened before the situation could escalate.

"Sakura!"

Sakura's head snapped in his direction, body stiffening in recognition.

"Sakura, let her go. You're safe here."

She didn't seem to be listening. Her face shifted in the direction of the kunai in his hand.

Quickly letting his weapon clatter to the ground, Kakashi brought his arms up in a placating manner. He spoke in the softest voice he could muster, not wanting to spook the girl further.

"We're in Wave country right now, remember? At the bridge builder's House? That's his daughter Tsunami. You remember Tsunami right? Inari's mother? We came to protect the bridge-builder? Do you remember that, Sakura?"

To his intense relief, halfway through his blundering, Sakura let up on choking the woman, but she did not get up. Tsunami was shaking harder than a leaf, her hands coming up to protect her throat from further damage. She was coughing and crying quietly at the same time.

Unable to move away from her attacker, Tsunami remained as still as possible in order to remain inconspicuous to her attacker.

"What—Wave country…?" Sakura murmured, looking highly confused for all intents and purposes.

Within that moment of silence, multiple footsteps were heard thundering down the hall. The door was pushed open by a dishevelled Naruto holding his pillow as a weapon. Sasuke lurked just behind him, weapons drawn and peeking over Naruto's shoulder. Beyond them, Tazuna shot Kakashi a questioning look, carrying a frightened Inari.

"Kakashi-sensei! What happened?! Sakura, you okay?!"

Kakashi looked back at Sakura to see her staring at Naruto. He watched a myriad of emotions pass over her face before it settled on incredulity.

"What the fuck?" She said, stumbling away from Tsunami and flattening herself against the nearest wall.

Tsunami used that opportunity to scramble away and escape into the arms of her father.

Kakashi barely even noticed.

The spot where Sakura stood perfectly illuminated her features; from the strangely familiar jewel on her forehead to the fact that Haruno Sakura seemed to have aged 10 years overnight.


	2. Two

Chapter Two

* * *

The dining room was quiet.

Kakashi eyed the occupants. He was at the table. Naruto sat beside him, oddly silent. In fact, Kakashi reflected, this may as well be the longest he's ever been quiet in his entire life.

Sasuke sat in the doorway, playing with a kunai and looking very nonchalant. His body language gave him away though. He was tense, shoulders too stiff and spine too straight.

On the far side of the room, keeping as much distance between them as possible, sat the civilian family hosting them. Inari was barely awake, nodding off on his grandfather's lap. Tazuna was also sitting stiffly, fear and concern rolling off of him in equal measure. Tsunami sat leaning against her father, looking downright miserable. She held a cup of warm water to her still red neck.

It was a nasty bruise, Kakashi acknowledged. It spanned the lower half of her neck and coloured some parts of her collar bones as well. The edges were slowly turning blue. Come morning and it would darken to a terrifying degree. It didn't look too serious but he wasn't sure. A closer look was warranted and he was no medic.

Finally, Kakashi turned to observe the elephant in the room. Across from him, hands folded neatly in her lap,_ Haruno Sakura_ was steadily attempting to bore a hole into the tabletop.

_Haruno Sakura. _

He couldn't argue that fact. In his heart, he knew it was her. Yes, her cherry-blossom hair was longer, sweeping past her hips. Yes, her verdant green eyes were darker, now more emerald than teal. She still had that barely-there freckle in the corner of her eye. And she still tapped her nails when she was nervous.

For the past half hour, Kakashi struggled to come to terms with the person in front of him. His mind oscillated from thoughts of a well executed Henge to the possibility of his entrapment in a powerful Genjutsu. The presence of Obito's Sharingan negates both these possibilities.

_And yet._

The young woman in front of him was closer to his age than she was to her team-mates. And _nothing_ in the realm of possibility explained her presence. Or her absence.

_What happened to her? The __**real **__Sakura, __**our-**_

Kakashi took a deep breath, held it for a second, then let it go.

"Okay," He said, to the simultaneous flinch of everyone in the room, "Let's get this over with."

He lifted his headband, making everyone zoom in on his Sharingan. "Miss, please state your full name and registration number."

_Sakura _ran a frustrated hand down her face and bit out: "Haruno Sakura. 012601."

"Age and date of birth?"

"Twenty-three. March 28, Fourth Age."

"Gender?"

She gave him a blank look.

Kakashi cracked a wry smile. It went unseen under his mask but _Sakura _still understood what he was doing. She looked away.

"Can you prove that you are who you say you are?" he asked softly.

She was quiet for a beat. He waited patiently, watching her jaw clench ever so often. As far as tangible proof went, that little tic was good enough. He's seen it countless times, most often when Naruto became just a tad too obnoxious. But. One can never be too cautious.

"I have a summon."

Kakashi paused, weighing the pros and cons. He nodded.

She bit her thumb, swept her hand across the table and released the smallest sliver of chakra. All in slow motion, no doubt in response to the tensing of the civilians in the corner.

The smallest cloud of smoke appeared and dispersed just as easily, revealing a tiny, green-striped slug.

Oh.

_Oh. _

"Chīsana, please identify your summoner." Sakura called out. The slug bowed to her and turned to Kakashi.

"You are in the presence of Mistress Haruno Sakura, contracted at the behest of Lady Tsunade-sama to Lady Katsuyu-sama of Shikkotsu Forest."

_Well, fuck._

Kakashi sagged forward, pulling his hitai_-_ate over his sharingan. Well, there's his answer. "Tsunade-sama? Really?" he had to ask, conflicted about how to feel.

Sakura shrugged. "Yeah. Things...happened." She finished lamely, looking uncomfortable.

Naruto, having finally reached his threshold, stood up. "No way, lady. You sure as hell ain't no Sakura-chan." He pointed a finger at Sakura's nose, a ferocious glare marring his face. "So, you better tell me where you took her before I beat the answer out of you."

Kakashi felt embarrassment crawl up his spine. _"Naruto."_ he hissed, "Sit _down."_

Naruto stubbornly stayed standing. Sasuke, using this opportunity to add his two cents, sheathed his kunai and came up on Kakashi's other side. "The dobe is right. I don't trust her. Where's Sakura?"

Sakura made eye contact with one and then the other boy. "I don't know where she is." She said, mustering as much sincerity into her facial expressions as physically possible.

"Then we have nothing more to talk about." Sasuke stated. He walked away, out of the room and further inside the house. Naruto followed him out, giving Sakura one last disbelieving glare.

"That's fair." She deadpanned softly.

"Sorry." Kakashi offered half-heartedly. She brushed him off and turned to face their hosts.

She bowed to them. "Please accept my sincere apologies, Tsunami-san. Being unable to recognize my surroundings, I assumed you to be an enemy and attacked." Sakura kept her head bowed, waiting for Tsunami's reply.

Tsunami cleared her throat three times before attempting to speak. "It's fine." she said, voice hoarse. "I was not harmed too seriously. It was only a misunderstanding."

Sakura nodded once and glanced up. "Please allow me to fix my mistake." she said, holding up her hand. It glowed mint green. "I am a medic-nin. I will not harm you, I promise."

Tsunami hesitated, glancing at her father for reassurance. Tazuna looked just as uncertain.

"That's healing chakra." Kakashi piped up, "It's perfectly safe. Don't worry."

Tsunami still looked unsure, but nodded in consent. Sakura took it in stride and moved closer. Kakashi watched her with bittersweet nostalgia.

When Sakura pulled back a few minutes later, Tsunami's skin was as clear as day. She looked relieved too. Both of them did.

The room grew silent again.

Before awkwardness can swallow them whole, Tazuna excused himself, carrying a dozing Inari in his arms. Tsunami hurried after them, her footsteps echoing in the dead of the night.

Kakashi felt the events of the night catch up to him quite suddenly. God, he was tired. "Let's continue this conversation in the morning, yes?" he asked, already getting up without waiting for her reply.

"I'm sure we'll figure something out." he said, trying his hand at comfort. She didn't reply. He didn't expect her to.

He turned and hobbled out of the room.


	3. Three

Chapter Three

* * *

The sun rose leisurely that morning, peeking out over the mist curling on the horizon. Sunlight refracted on dewdrops decorating the grass and most of the viridian evergreens lining the water. Cool breeze coiled around the trees and rippled the water. The world was quiet.

Sakura watched the day arrive, mind carefully blank. She did not sleep—couldn't actually. There were too many thoughts in her head, whirling too quickly to pick apart. Of course, Sakura imagined that returning to sleep in the same room she shared with the civilian _whom she had just recently assaulted_ was just poor form. There was no need to make the woman feel more uncomfortable than she already was. And _obviously,_ she couldn't take up space in the room lodging her _team._

Sakura clapped a hand to her face, willing herself not to lose composure.

So. With too many problems piling up and no solution revealing itself, she exited the house. For Kakashi's benefit, she lingered close to the house. The forest provided the perfect cover for her thirty minute mental breakdown of epic proportions. Silent, of course. She's nothing if not courteous.

"Sakura-chan."

Chīsana, bless her soul, kept her company this whole time. She would pop in and out of existence ever so often, acting as a mediator between Sakura and Katsuyu-sama, carrying messages between dimensions.

Sakura moved Chīsana from her position on her shoulder to her knee. "Yes?"

"Katsuyu-sama maintains that she cannot sense any irregularities in your chakra."

Sakura blanched. "Meaning?" she asked, already knowing what it means.

"You're the only Sakura in this dimension. There is no other."

"Can Katsuyu-sama pull me through?" Sakura questioned hopefully.

Chīsana shook her head. "No. She has already tried. She believes it's because you have not signed our Summoning Contract in this dimension."

That means two things. One, she's stuck here. At least, until she can get her hands on the Slug Summoning scroll again. Which means finding Tsunade-sama. And explaining who she was.

Sakura thought for a minute.

_Hard no to that._

Two, she didn't just replace the other Sakura. She _is _the other Sakura. Either she pushed Kid Sakura out and occupied her body, in which case Kid Sakura could be floating around as a disembodied soul._ Or dead._ Or Sakura could have absorbed her child self, which either means Kid sakura might be hanging out in her head, part of Sakura herself, _or dead._

_Great. I'm about seventy percent sure I killed little me._

Sakura sighed. "Chīsana, what about Naruto? Were you able to reach him?"

"No," Chīsana said, squirming in agitation. "Everytime I try, I get rerouted to the younger one in this dimension. Katsuyu-sama has tried reaching out to Tsunade-sama as well." She rubbed her tiny feelers together. "Do not worry Sakura-chan. We'll get you home soon. Be patient."

Sakura swallowed. "Okay."

"I must go now. I'll check in on you soon." Chīsana disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Sakura fell back onto the grass.

_Now what?_

Sakura was stuck here for the foreseeable future. She may have killed her younger self. Her teammates hate her. And her sensei didn't trust her. If she decided to return to Konoha, she may as well march straight into Torture and Investigation and give up everything she knows in the hopes that they don't kill her. Or worse, send her to Danzo to do as he sees fit.

If she runs off, she'll be labeled a missing-nin and hunted down like a dog. _And_ she'll lose her biggest resource in investigating exactly how she ended up here - Konoha Library.

Voices echoed in the distance. Naruto was the loudest, shouting at the top of his lungs. "SAKURA-CHAN! WHERE ARE YOU?! SAKURA-CHAN!"

Sakura winced at the volume. Twelve-year-old Naruto was probably the loudest child she had ever come across. Distancing herself from the treeline, Sakura quickly came into view of Naruto who was facing the other way. Sasuke was the first to notice her. He scowled on sight. Naruto, noting his face, also turned around and frowned at her.

"Not you, lady." He said, "We're looking for the _real _Sakura-chan." He brushed past her and stalked off into the woods. "SAKURA-CHAN!"

Sasuke assessed her, his glower deepening in thought. "Do you know?" He asked.

Sakura inclined her head in question. He appeared annoyed at having to explain himself. "Do you know what happened to her?"

"I have my suspicions." She stated, watching his face contort in displeasure.

"And."

Here, she could only drop her head in shame and sorrow. "Either she's still here or she's—" She swallowed. "Or she's...gone."

Sasuke looked stricken. He didn't speak after that announcement, nodding once and stiffly marched after Naruto.

It took every fiber in Sakura's being not to burst into tears. She kept moving, circling around the house and entered through the front door.

Uncomfortable at the prospect of interacting with someone, she set a brisk pace down the hall, ducking her head as she passed the dining room. Taking a left, she quickly slid the door open and entered the room.

The room she—her younger self— shared with Tsunami. She vaguely recognized the cream rucksack nestled in the corner as belonging to her younger self and strode over to it. Dumping its contents onto the floor, she took a quick inventory of the items.

There was a toothbrush, a comb, a few hair accessories, a pair of navy sweatpants, undergarments that were too small to fit her frame, an old novel that she vaguely remembered, and finally, hidden at the very bottom of the pack was a scroll containing all of little Sakura's meager savings and the entirety of her weapons collection.

She collected the scroll and the sweatpants and went through the tiny cupboard in the corner. Here she found the rest of Sakura's belongings— her weapons pouch and some more clothes. Rooting through the garments, she found a tank top that looked like it would fit.

Sakura looked down at herself in derision. She'll be glad to get out of the frilly pyjamas she woke up in and into something a little more practical.

Setting the clothes aside, Sakura sat down to catalogue the weapons pouch and the storage scroll. This was how Kakashi found her.

"Ah, Sakura-san?"

"Yes?" She hummed, rummaging through a pitiful excuse of a first aid kit and setting aside a roll of bandages to be used as chest bindings. The weapons were in dire need of sharpening too, she noted.

"I was wondering if you could do me a favour?" Kakashi queried.

Sakura stilled and turned to face him, waiting. He shifted from his position against the doorway and hobbled inside the room.

"If it's not too much trouble, could you shadow Tazuna for a few days? Only for about a week or so, until I've recovered enough to take over."

Sakura contemplated the task, rewrapping the empty scroll.

Kakashi shifted from leg to leg, waiting for her answer. He continued before she could reply. "And I've also been meaning to train my te—er, they're in dire need of some guidance." He was chuckling at some memory only he was privy to.

"Would you trust me with such a task?" Sakura inquired softly.

"'Course I would. Tsunade-sama wouldn't train just anyone. I know you'll only have Konoha's best interests at heart."

_Right. _

He counted on her like he would a fellow ninja, not a teammate. Sakura stayed silent, not trusting herself to speak.

Kakashi sighed softly and knelt in front of her. "I don't know how the Hokage or the council will react to your..._circumstances_, but if you do this as a favour to me, I promise I'll put in a good word on your behalf."

Sakura mulled this over. On the one hand, Kakashi's word was worth a lot. On the other, he was unabashedly manipulating her, the _bastard_.

"How about this," she declared. "You give me something that I want, and I'll give you something in return. Sort of a _quid pro quo_ situation. What do you say?"

Kakashi looked gobsmacked at her, frankly speaking, excellent attempt at reverse-manipulation.

"Isn't that exactly what I'm offering?" He asked mildly.

"Mm." Sakura flapped a hand. "Only Samurai deal in honour, ninja-san." she mocked. "I don't trust your _word. _I need something a little more substantial."

"What do you have in mind?" He looked resigned. Good. Trying to exploit her. The nerve.

"It's nothing much. I'll agree to escort Tazuna for a week. In return, I want permission to heal you."

"What."

"You heard me."

"No." He answered flatly. He shifted in preparation to get up. But Sakura already knew all of his gimmicks by heart, the man was thinking.

"I thought you trusted me." She said blandly.

That did it.

Kakashi dropped like a rock, relinquishing both his pride and his crutches. Sakura gleefully brought a glowing hand close to his frame.

"Excellent finangling." He complimented, stretching out his legs.

"Thanks. I learnt from the best." Sakura shrugged nonchalantly, giving him a significant look.

Kakashi rubbed his neck in embarrassment.

They sat in silence as Sakura scanned him. Fifteen minutes later, she dispersed her chakra.

"You had some bruising on your ribs and a twisted ankle. I've fixed both but unfortunately I can't do anything about your chakra exhaustion. You'll have to take it easy for the next couple of days." She paused, wondering how to approach the topic.

"Your eye has some nerve damage that requires treatment."

Kakashi froze.

"I'm not going to insist at this moment." She said delicately. "Just think about it."

He nodded. Once Sakura double checked his injuries and moved away, he thanked her and sped away, crutches forgotten in his hurry. Not that he needed them anymore.

Not ten minutes passed before she was dressed and ready to go. Half an hour later, Tazuna and Sakura were en route to the bridge.


	4. Four

Chapter Four

* * *

Tazuna set a slow, ambling pace through the woods. He took care not to use any paths and for a while, Sakura though they were just aimlessly wandering through the forest. A little more than half an hour later, she caught a whiff of salt water and she knew they were closing in on the Bay. At last they left the trees behind and emerged into an alley that led to an equally desolate street. Sakura was very impressed. She gave him a winning smile, something he looked embarrassed to be on the receiving end of.

By the looks of it, they were near the docks. Long rows of storehouses lined both sides of the road. It led as far as the eye can see on either side of the alley. Tazuna gestured for her to be quiet and to follow his lead. She nodded. Together, they crossed the road and slid into another alley between buildings.

They came upon a well hidden door that had her double-check her eyesight. It was a carefully crafted door that was made to resemble the wall surrounding it. There was no handle, aiding in its camouflage but careful examination showed it to be of a different material to the wall.

_Nice. _

Tazuna knocked three times, then twice, then three again.

They waited.

The door swung open silently and in front of them stood a man around the same age as Tazuna. He was unremarkable in every way. Brown hair, brown eyes and spectacles to boot. Although perhaps in an impoverished country that's currently being overtaken by a money-hungry dictator, possessing a pair of spectacles may be considered a symbol of education and authority and therefore may not be taken very well.

Anyways.

The man waved them inside and Sakura hurried to follow Tazuna into the joint. The storehouse was illuminated by natural light shining in through caches in the roof. Crates of different sizes littered the room. The largest ones lined the wall with the concealed door, hiding it from sight. Smaller ones were scattered in messy piles. Some were tipped over, spilling their contents onto the floor.

In addition to their chaperone, half a dozen other men milled around the warehouse.

"You sure took your time getting here." The man stated gruffly, leaning against a crate and watching them carefully.

Tazuna cleared his throat. "Ran into a spot o' trouble, Kousuke."

He nodded as though to say 'figured as much' then gestured to Sakura. "Who's the girl?"

"One of the ninja I was able to hire." Tazuna said curtly.

"Is she the only one?"

"Nah, there's three more. One of 'em got hurt on the way."

The man, Kousuke scoffed. "Can't be any good if they can't take a hit from a thug."

Tazuna did not reply. Smart choice. Thugs were one thing, ninjas are another. The bridge-builder's employees were stressed, overworked and a stone's throw away from rioting. Adding ninjas to that only complicated things.

Tazuna cleared his throat. "They'll be doin' their jobs either way." He glanced her way. "This 'ere is Sakura. She'll be with us for the next few days."

Sakura smiled and nodded in acknowledgement.

Incredulous was an understatement. Kousuke and his workers outright rejected this idea. It was clear as day on their faces, but they did not speak out. Whether fear of her retribution or Tazuna's chastisement, or resignation to the fact that their situation has become dire enough to warrant help from a ninja— even if she was a woman.

"Alright then," Tazuna clapped his hands to gain everyone's attention. "Where we at with the construction?"

Kousuke listed off numerous things, with half the technical terms flying over her head and the other half vaguely understood.

"The bridge is about 80 percent done." Kousuke finally stated. "Concrete and steel ran out about three days ago. We were able to smuggle the cement and gravel out little by little but the metal's been giving us some trouble. It's not exactly subtle." The man chuckled, gesturing to the all the steel lying in a large pile in one corner— bars and ropes of different sizes.

"The ropes we can manage. There's no way we can transport these bars without cranes." Tazuna mumbled.

Kousuke snorted. "You'll need at least five men per crate if you're trying to carry them. There's no way they'll fit through the back door. Not to mention Gato's been keeping eyes out front for a while now. Face it chap, these ain't going anywhere."

Tazuna hm'd and ha'd over this hitch in their plans. Few men came forward to give suggestions. Others went back to work.

Sakura sighed. Nothing seemed to be going smoothly today. She worried over Chīsana's continued absence, hoping and praying for her quick return. When that yielded no peace, her mind turned to her teammates' brusque attitude which only made her feel worse. So many problems, no solution; and no-one to blame. It is what it is.

In the background, there was a sudden rise in volume. Neither herself nor Tazuna were any closer to solving their respective problems then.

"Ninja-san?"

Sakura turned around to find a man— boy— staring down at her, green eyes bright with curiosity. "Yes?"

He blushed, averting his eyes. "Ah, I-I was wondering if, maybe, if you weren't too busy, you could—_would_ maybe answer _afewofmyquestions_?" he finished in a breath, screwing his eyes closed and flinching back.

Sakura blinked. "...Sure."

The boy sighed in relief, running a hand through his matted hair. "I'm Hansuke. It's the first time I've seen a real ninja. Is it true that you people can walk on water?"

Sakura smirked. "Maybe."

The boy scowled. "You said you'd answer my questions."

"And I did." She replied cheekily. The crowd behind them were getting progressively louder as more voices added to the cacophony. Sakura steadily ignored them. So did Hansuke.

He crossed his arms together, determinedly pushing through with his questions. "Can you disappear?"

"Sometimes."

"What about flying?"

"Depends. Can you?"

"Do you talk to animals?"

"Every now and then."

"Well, what about super-strength?"

Hm.

Actually, not a bad idea.

Sakura turned on her heel and stalked closer to the commotion.

"H-hey! Come back!" Hansuke protested, giving chase.

"Gentlemen!" she shouted over the pandemonium. "I may have a solution to your predicament."

The fuss stopped short. Men shot her dubious looks over their shoulders, some scoffed and two of them returned to their conversation as though they've never been interrupted.

No matter.

Sakura leaned forward and grasped the edge of a crate, hauling it up and over her head with one hand. "Where would you like these delivered?"

She heard a collective gasp and then silence.

* * *

Dear readers, thank you very much for all the reviews and follows and favourites. You've all made my recent days very bright. Please continue to review as you go through the chapters and expand on things that you've enjoyed, things you've disliked, things you think I could improve on and any questions concerning the story.

I apologize for how late I am. Hope you've enjoyed this chapter and stay tuned for more.


	5. Five

Chapter Five

* * *

Sakura spent the rest of the day ferrying crates of steel rope to the construction site and dodging Hansuke's various questions. For a civilian, the boy had quite some stamina. He was able to keep up with her for most of their back and forth journey. It was during this time in close proximity that she learnt of the boy's father—Kousuke.

"What!" Sakura almost dropped a crate. "You're kidding!"

Hansuke laughed and denied fibbing. "You know kid, I just can't see you being related to that crabby old man." She blew a strand of hair off her face before securing the crate and off they went.

The boy was quiet as they walked. There was a story here, waiting to be heard. She would not pry though. They passed the third pine tree marking their way before he spoke again.

"He wasn't always so ill-tempered. Gato… he-he tricked us. He made us believe that-that he could _change_ things. That we could_ prosper_ and not just—and not just pray that we live long enough to see the sun rise tomorrow." Hansuke huffed out a breath. He was looking into the distance; mind far away, in a different time.

"_If. _God, there's always an if. _If_ only we let him control all of the offshore shipments, he'll help us thrive; and dad was the first to believe him." His voice tapered off, overflowing with unsaid emotions.

"And what did he get in return?" he scoffed, voice like stone. "He lost a son. I lost a brother, and this damn country lost a hero."

Sakura stiffened. This story was too familiar to be a coincidence."Was his name Kaiza?" She asked softly, wondering if this question was better left unanswered.

Hansuke gave her a jerky nod. "Tsunami-san's husband." he confirmed. "The only man here who was brave enough to stand up against Gato."

Sakura's heart was breaking in two. She could feel it. This country was a _goddamn_ tragedy.

* * *

After dropping off the last of the crates, Sakura pestered Hansuke into taking the scenic route on the way back to the docks. "I know your father only sent you with me because he doesn't 'trust' me but that doesn't mean you can't have fun." She said matter-of-factly.

Hansuke rolled his eyes. "It's not that he doesn't trust _you_ per se. It's just that people from your particular _profession_ didn't make a name for themselves by being _trustworthy._"

Sakura snorted in laughter.

"Besides," he continued. "You really might have gotten lost."

She gasped in mock offence. "Are you implying that I don't have a sense of direction?"

"Implying? I'm telling it like it is!"

"Ha! Nice try little boy, but I know exactly where we are!"

"And where exactly is that?"

"...North?"

Hansuke tried to stifle his laughter. He cracked though when Sakura sent him a baleful expression. "No, no." he snickered, palms out in the universal gesture of peace. "You're absolutely right."

Sakura harrumphed and they descended into a companionable silence. She observed him out of the corner of her eye.

Hansuke was a carefree boy by nature whose circumstances pushed him into growing up faster. He was tall and lean, with a thin layer of muscle lining his shoulders and arms from his time working on the bridge. He had a naturally golden complexion that was characteristic to the people of Wave. His face though— It was gaunt. He was starving, whether on purpose or because of his country's slowly choking economy.

"How old are you, Hansuke-kun?" she asked, genuinely curious.

He blinked in surprise. "I'm seventeen. Why?"

"No reason." She hummed. "Listen. How about this, if you take me deeper into the forest, I'll show you some top secret ninja techniques. How about that?"

"What, seriously? You will?!" Hansuke stopped in his tracks, her offer swaying him with ease.

Sakura laughed and nodded. He whooped in joy and they took off.

* * *

For the next three hours, Sakura had Hansuke help her set snare traps and collect enough herbs to cure the whole of Konoha all the while teaching him to make his own traps and pointing out exactly how to use each herb. They caught a total of five hares and made it back to the docks with time to spare. Kousuke looked both relieved and disgruntled at his son's disheveled appearance.

Sakura sent him off with two of the hares and a pointed quip about body odour.

She accompanied Tazuna to the village where he mentioned having some errands to run. While shadowing him, she got to relive her first experience with poverty. She gave the rest of her catch to the first people she came across—an emaciated group of children, a heavily pregnant lady and a man carrying a toddler on his shoulders.

At least someone would be eating well tonight, and that made Sakura's day infinitely better.

Tazuna finished his errands quickly and after buying a bundle of wilted greens, they left the village behind. He cleared his throat softly before saying: "Sakura-san?"

She turned to him, face expectant.

"Thank you fer helpin' us with the crates. We would 'ave had a lot o' trouble if ya weren't there."

Sakura flushed. "It's my duty. We're here to keep you safe and getting the bridge built as fast as possible is in everyone's favour."

"Yeah, but feedin' us is not part o' that duty, is it?" His tone was teasing, voice light.

"Ah, no— but I couldn't just let them starve."

Tazuna nodded. "Yer a kind person, Sakura-san. I wouldn't try an' say I understand how or why ya got 'ere, but my people are thankful all the same fer yer help."

Sakura was rendered speechless. She swallowed a protest and nodded.

They spent the rest of their walk brainstorming plans to discreetly transport not-so-discreet steel bars and reached Tazuna's house just in time to hear the tail end of a conversation.

"—giving up is a coward's way to live and _I'm not a coward!"_

The door slammed open and Inari ran past them, sniffling. Tazuna and Sakura gave each other quizzical looks and stepped into the dining room to bear witness to Naruto's rage.

Naruto growled when he caught sight of Sakura, face morphed into a feral expression. _"What, came back to kill the rest of us?"_

Shit.

Sakura quickly assessed the situation. Tazuna stood behind her, Tsunami was near the sink in the kitchen. Kakashi sat at the table, body poised in faux ease. Sasuke, the oblivious, idiot, _darling _boy was _defending_ her.

He placed himself adjacent and slightly in front of her and regarded Naruto with a cool look. "You can't blame her for Sakura's disappearance, idiot. She's hardly the one in control of _Time _itself." He scoffed.

"_**Bullshit.**_"

Naruto's progressively deepening voice was worrisome. His whisker-like marks were getting darker and his eyes flashed dangerously. Chakra was starting to leak from him, creating an oppressive atmosphere. He caught her eye. "_**Let's take this outside."**_

"Listen dumb—" Sasuke's protest was cut short by Sakura's hand on his shoulder. She didn't take her eyes off Naruto.

"Okay." she agreed softly. "We're going outside."

She walked backward, maintaining eye contact and allowing Tazuna to open the door for her. As Naruto passed under Tazuna's trembling arm, Sakura noticed Kakashi's gaze and sent him a quick thumbs up. Kakashi nodded back.

Hopefully, Kakashi will be able to keep everyone far enough away in case everything went to shit. A vague plan formed in her head involving Genjutsu and a quickly dwindling hope that Naruto would hesitate in attacking her.

"_**Last chance, lady. Where's Sakura?" **_

Sakura shrugged. "Right here, kid. Let's see what you got."

Naruto snarled and made his signature hand-sign. Sakura pulled out one of her kunai. There was a stilted pause then Naruto charged.

"_Shadow clone jutsu!" _

Hundreds of his doppelgängers occupied the field in a matter of seconds, all of them stuck in the same semi-feral transformation. They charged with reckless abandon.

Sakura stepped into the range of the first clone, slicing his forearm. He disappeared in a puff of smoke. She dodged the second one's punch and used a third to knock out the second and fourth one that appeared. On and on until she made a sizable cloud of smoke and used the cover to leave behind a clone of her own. She used a Body-flicker to escape into the tree-line. Her clone continued dodging and dispelling clones.

Three minutes in, her clone's chakra ran out and she disappeared with a pop.

"Dammit, _**where'd she go**_?!"

"That was a _**clone, dumbass**_! How the hell did you not_** notice**_?"

"Me?_** You're**_ the dumbass,_** dumbass**_."

It was horrific to hear the nine-tails' half-demonic rasp filtering in and out of Naruto's childish voice.

Naruto dispelled all his clones simultaneously. Sakura used a second Body-flicker to drop down inside the ensuing smoke-cloud. She used a Henge to transform into her younger self and when the dust finally settled, the first thing Naruto saw was her.

"_**Sa-saku**_ra-chan?"

She didn't wait for him to realize what was happening. Sakura darted forward and nicked his cheek with her kunai.

There was a pause.

Naruto's eyes glazed over and he collapsed into her arms. Gently, she laid him out on the grass and smoothed his hair away from his face.

Kakashi and Sasuke took this moment to appear.

"He's not hurt. I just put him to sleep." She whispered. They didn't reply. She didn't expect them to. She left Naruto in their hands and returned to the house.

She spent a few minutes assuaging the civilians concerns. After confirming multiple times that Tsunami was agreeable to her continued usage of her bedroom, Sakura dropped into bed.

Her last conscious thought was that she still hadn't heard from Chīsana but she dozed off before she could think more on it.

* * *

uhhhh, 100 followers? thank you! also, HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY! hope ya'll have a great year ahead of you!


	6. Six

Chapter Six

* * *

Sakura woke to a quiet house. Snores cut through the silence intermittently. Tsunami was considerate enough to leave some dinner out for her in the dining room. It was cold but to Sakura, it tasted like home. She washed the dishes and left them on the counter to dry.

Returning to the dining room, she started separating all of her recently collected herbs into bundles based on species. Then, she collected bits from each bundle and put them together with some twine. She repeated this on and on till she ran out of herbs. A sizable mountain of herbal tea was left on the table.

She packed them into a burlap cloth she bought while she was at the village yesterday. Leaving that off to the side, Sakura packed another burlap sack into her weapons pouch and left the house.

She went North, walking until she reached flowing water and then climbed upstream. Faint moonlight illuminated her path. It wasn't long before she stood in front of a clearing overrun by wild mushrooms. Sakura pulled out the burlap sack and set to work.

* * *

Two hours later, Sakura returned to Tazuna's house with a bulging pack of mushrooms. She set it down outside the entrance to the house and walked inside. Tsunami was already awake and making breakfast. Sakura greeted her and pulled out a few of the herb bundles she set aside.

"Tsunami-san, please use these to make some tea."

Tsunami looked pleasantly surprised at Sakura's offer. "Oh, thank you dear! Where on earth did you find these?" She set a kettle up with some water to boil.

"Collected them from the forest myself. Hansuke-kun helped, of course."

Tsunami's smile turned bittersweet. "And how is he?" She asked, her hand stilling on her knife.

"Tired. Half the town looks exhausted."

Tsunami nodded in affirmation. "We've been here a long time, Sakura-san."

"So, why don't you leave?"

She shook her head. "This is home, Sakura-san. It's all we've ever known. Walking away now would be too unbearable."

Sakura smiled in understanding. "Would you like to help?"

"What?" Tsunami looked at her with alarm. "Help with what?"

"Well, I have a huge sack of mushrooms out front. I was wondering if you wanted to help distribute them to the people in the village."

Tsunami's knife clanged into the sink. She looked at her in bewilderment. "Mush..rooms?"

"Yes." Sakura answered patiently.

Tsunami blinked.

Sakura blinked.

"What."

"What?"

Tsunami stopped what she was doing, took the kettle off the heat and walked off towards the front of the house. Sakura followed her leisurely.

She stopped short in front of the pack and knelt down to open it.

"Huh."

"Yup."

"You collected mushrooms."

"Yep."

"To feed the villagers."

"Yep."

A beat of silence.

"I also have some tea."

Tsunami started giggling. "Oh Sakura-san, I really thought you were just pulling my leg."

Sakura shook her head, laughing as well. "Admittedly, I could have phrased that better."

Tsunami got up and wiped her hands on her apron, looking thoughtful. "Well, how about this. I'll finish making lunch early and then Inari and I will go around town and distribute these—and the tea. In secret, of course."

Sakura stuttered to a stop. "Oh, well. I-you-uh-you don't help?"

"To distribute mushrooms?"

Well, when you put it like that. "Right." Sakura coughed. "Thanks."

"No," Tsunami denied, "thank you, Sakura-san."

Sakura smiled in reply.

They went back inside. Tsunami continued making breakfast. Sakura put the kettle back on the heat and took it off when it started boiling. She added the herbs and let it steep for a few minutes. They chatted about some inane matter or the other as they worked. Tsunami looked more comfortable in her presence as time passed and Sakura was thankful for that small blessing.

She poured some tea into a cup and served it to Tsunami.

"Oh!" Tsunami exclaimed. "This is very good." She breathed in the aroma. "Is that mint?"

"Rosemary. It helps with circulation."

They leaned back against the counter and sipped warm tea, each in their own mind.

* * *

Breakfast was less awkward than yesterday. Neither Kakashi, Naruto or Sasuke showed up. Perhaps they just wanted to avoid a confrontation and that was something Sakura could get behind.

Inari ate his food quietly. He seemed nervous around her. Considering that his last interaction with a ninja did not go well, maybe he thought being silent was the best course of action.

After eating and helping Tsunami with the dishes, Sakura handed a small sachet off to her. "Could you make them some tea with these herbs? It's Ginseng, helps to recover energy faster."

Tsunami agreed and clasped their hands together. "Don't worry Sakura-san. They'll come around soon enough."

Sakura gave her a watery smile and shook her head. She didn't mind that they distrusted her. They hardly knew her and were right to do so. She only missed _her _team, the ones who knew her. The same way that this younger version of her team missed her younger self.

They were all helpless in the hands of fate and until Chīsana comes by with good news, they're stuck in each others presence for better or for worse.

Sakura bid Tsunami goodbye and followed Tazuna out the door.

* * *

Naruto woke up from one nightmare and landed in another one. Although, that was a matter of perspective. Most people, often of the female persuasion, would enjoy waking up face to face with the last scion of the Uchiha clan.

He jerked away from him and into a sitting position, the motion making him black out for a second. "Woah, so many colours." Naruto squeezed his eyes closed and opened them again. Alright, they're gone.

He looked around the room. _'Where's kakashi sensei?' _Hovering near the door, Naruto heard faint voices from down the hall and aborted going in that direction.

"Hey moron."

He jerked around to see Sasuke awake and sitting up in bed. He was tugging on a wet spot on his shirt. "You drooled on me." Sasuke deadpanned.

"Pshh," Naruto scoffed. "Yeah right, you just drooled on yourself and you're too embarrassed to admit it."

Sasuke scowled in annoyance. "Shut up, idiot." He focused his eyes on Naruto's chin and a smirk lifted his lips. "I'm not the one with drool crusting on his chin."

Naruto slapped a hand onto his jaw and glowered as well. "Whatever, bastard." He looked away, wondering if he should go through the door and risk coming face to face with Sa—_nope!—_or go through the window and risk falling into the water, and to his death.

_Hmm._

Window it is.

He sat himself down on the window sill and threw one leg over the ledge.

"Naruto."

"Eh?" He glanced up to see Sasuke watching him, face serious. Serious enough to call him by his name.

"What...what happened yesterday? You...there was this.._violent.._aura around you. You were growling, and your voice—you-you were different somehow." Sasuke took a breath, looking lost for words. "A-are you okay?"

Naruto felt his stomach drop. The demon. They must have affected him somehow. He gave a nervous laugh. "What," He rolled his eyes, "Sasuke, you were probably seeing things because of how scared you were. Pshh, me, growling, can you imagine? Ha, ha, ha."

This was not going well.

Sasuke looked perplexed and ready to fire off more questions.

"Well, if Kakashi-sensei asks, I'll be in the woods practicing my tree-climbing. _Toodles!_"

He jumped before Sasuke could protest and landed on the water with chakra-laden feet. for a second, Naruto was standing on the water. Then fell straight through the surface and into the unforgivingly cold.

Three minutes into his drowning, Naruto realized that the water only came up to his chest. He stood up, grumbling to himself about the unfairness of the world, and waded to the shore. In total silence, he squeezed excess water from his clothes—_his pyjamas_— and stomped into the woods.

* * *

Sasuke continued to fume in the room. While Naruto is entitled to his secrets, the fact that he has secrets to begin with was startling to Sasuke. The sudden and unexpected loss of Sakura made him re-evaluate his priorities. More importantly, it made him realize that his _team_ was also included under said priorities.

With Sakura's loss fresh in his mind, he would be hard-pressed to let Naruto die on his foolish venture into the forest. _Alone. _

Sasuke dressed quickly and went after Naruto, taking a minute to grab Naruto's tasteless excuse for clothes.

* * *

When Kakashi re-entered the room from his trip to the bathroom, he found it annoyingly empty.

'_No lesson today then?' _

He looked around.

'_Maa, they could have atleast left me a note.' _

He sighed.

Dammit, he was going to have to go after them, wasn't he.


	7. Seven

Chapter Seven

* * *

Sakura spent her day at the bridge, lifting heavy objects and making small talk with the workers. Every half hour, she would send clones to do a perimeter check. The rest of her time was spent keeping her mind busy and attempting to summon Chīsana.

"_Dammit." _She hissed as her fifth try went up in smoke. Literally. She watched her blood smear crumble to ash and then blow away in the wind.

Well, that can't be a good sign, right?

What does it mean when your blood turns to dust?

Sakura rubbed her eyes. This was no time to get philosophical. Nothing was going her way. In fact, things looked to be getting progressively worse. So, it was no surprise to her when she felt one of her clones pop.

She sighed and got up. "Tazuna-san." She called, "I'll be right back." Tazuna nodded distractedly and waved her off, yelling instructions to his men.

Taking the easiest way down, Sakura hopped off the bridge and landed on the water. She used the current to bring herself to shore and followed her clone's slowly vanishing chakra signature.

"...mean, you're real good lookin' and all but she's _really, really_ pretty."

That's Naruto's voice alright. What was he doing this far from the house?

There was a giggle in reply.

"And where is this pretty woman from, ninja-san?"

Sakura's blood ran cold. Who was this person? Their chakra signature was too high for a civilian. She stayed out of sight, suppressing her presence and waiting for his reply.

"Oh, uh, she's from the village, I mean, my village."

Simultaneously, all three understood that to be an awfully clumsy lie. Sakura facepalmed. This boy was going to get himself killed.

"I see." The words were spoken lightly belying the person's disbelief. Sakura sensed a slow rise in chakra from the unknown individual and knew they were going to attack. She got ready to intervene.

She didn't have to, though. Sasuke came barging through the underbrush, armed with orange clothing and a scowl. "You idiot! Where the hell were you running off to? The Clearing's that way." He stopped short at the sight of the stranger.

Sakura peeked around the tree. Long obsidian hair, pretty face, lean, wearing a yukata. Oh, this must be Haku. The details were fuzzy, and she can't recall their face from the battle on the bridge from when she was younger. But she does remember that Haku was the reason for Naruto's ambitious protective streak.

"Who are you?" Sasuke demanded.

"I am Haku." They replied pleasantly enough, but Sakura was worried. Their chakra was spiking higher.

"Haha, _hey_ Sasuke." Naruto piped up, jumping to his feet. "Boy am I glad to see you. I got _pretty _lost here." He chuckled awkwardly, glancing worriedly at Haku. "Well," He huffed with finality, "I guess I'll see you around, lady. We've got some important ninja stuff to do. It's probably too scary for you, so, uh." Naruto nodded. "We'll, uh, we'll be going now."

He pushed Sasuke roughly in the direction that he came from. "_Bye!" _

They hurried away. In the distance, Sakura could hear Sasuke berate Naruto for his harsh treatment.

Haku hovered in the tiny clearing a little longer, face tilted in curiosity. It was a good twenty minutes before they left. They paused for a minute at the edge of the field and for a second, Sakura worried that she'd been spotted. They left quickly though and Sakura returned to the bridge.

* * *

They trudged along in silence. Sasuke found it amusing how this mission, while an absolute _shitshow_, was making Naruto more mute than he's ever been in his entire _life._ Naruto's face would cycle through every emotion in his arsenal, from ecstatic to angry, depressed to perplexed. Every few minutes he would stop in his tracks, strange expression on his face before marching forward again.

"Dobe." Sasuke sighed, reaching the end of his patience. "What the hell is going on?"

"_Nothing."_ Naruto voiced in a suspiciously high pitch that meant he was hiding something. "Just, uh, thinking about this dream I had. Ehehehe."

Sasuke wrinkled his nose in disgust. "Ew." he stated. "Grow up."

Naruto looked at him in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"_Nothing_, jeez. Keep your disgusting dreams to yourself."

"_What._ _Teme_, not that kind of dream!" Naruto squealed in indignation.

"Whatever, you perv. I have better things to do." Sasuke stated, walking in such a way that he stayed a few steps in front of Naruto.

"Tch." Naruto clicked his tongue in frustration.

It was just a few minutes from Tazuna's house that he spoke again.

"I saw Sakura-chan's memories." Naruto stated.

"Not our Sakura-chan." he denied quickly to Sasuke's disbelieving face. "The older one, her memories."

"She's just tricking you." Sasuke hedged, jaw tightening in concern.

Naruto shook his head. He recalled a forest, looking up at his older self. A monstrous transformation and red haze of chakra. He recalled fear, _for him, _his older self_. _Concern, acceptance, protectiveness, love. Somehow, Naruto knew that all those emotions belonged to Sakura. He woke up feeling hollow, wondering if anyone would miss him the way Older Sakura missed his older self.

"I trust her." Naruto whispered. Those emotions felt too raw to be faked.

Sasuke swallowed.

"I—I can't." He took a step away from Naruto.

"Wha—Sasuke, it's okay." Naruto reached forward.

"No!"

Sasuke dashed away before Naruto could say another word.

* * *

Sakura took the long way around, along the shore to the abutment of the bridge. In the distance, she noticed the workers crowding around one corner of the deck. They were making too much noise for a covert operation such as this. She frowned and hurried closer.

"Kaiyō-kun! Go get the medic!" Someone shouted. A dark haired, vaguely familiar man brushed past her. Sakura's mind was slow to work out exactly what was happening, metaphorical cogs creaking in her brain.

"My son_, my son!_ Somebody help him!" Someone else screamed. "_Hansuke, wake up!"_

That's when it hit her. Sakura gasped harshly, mind finally catching up with the situation.

She ran.

"Move_."_ Sakura barked out harshly, pushing men aside. Many hurried out of her way. Kousuke was sobbing uncontrollably over his son's body. "I said _move._" She hissed, pushing the man out of the way.

Sakura inspected the boy quickly. Bleeding from the head, possible hematoma. Definite fracture of both legs. Probable spine injury.

She made a clone and quickly went to work. The clone started on the basics. Clear airway, inspect for breathing, re-establish circulation. She started CPR— 30 reps, 2 breaths.

"What happened?" She demanded, channelling chakra to her hands.

Sakura put a chakra coated palm on Hansuke's head. No brain damage. No bleeding into the brain or meninges. No fracture. Just a large superficial cut. She quickly sealed the cut and lowered her palm to his neck. Also no damage. She traveled to his abdomen where he had minimal bruising on his upper organs and more extensive ones on the lower ones. Fractured lower spine. Broken pelvis. _Pulverized _leg bones. Nerve and blood vessel damage. _Fuck. _He'd be lucky if he can ever walk again.

"He fell." Tazuna answered shakily. "From the crane."

Sakura looked up. Roughly 200 feet.

"Sabotage." Someone else interrupted gruffly. Arashi, the heavily built resident metal-worker, threw down a thick rope that looked half severed and half snapped.

The crowd fell into a deep and noisy argument that Sakura was quick to disregard. She started healing his blood vessels first, sealing off the hemorrhage, then worked on his nerves, healing as much of the damage as possible. She prayed it was enough. The bones were the trickiest and most time consuming. She fused them together superficially and left them to heal on their own. Her clone dispersed a while ago, when his condition stabilized and she was working on Hansuke's bones.

When Sakura came to, most of the workers were sent home for the day and the town medic was waiting on the sidelines. Hansuke was laid on a hastily put-together stretcher and taken away by the medic and some other workers who stayed behind—Kousuke included.

Sakura swayed unsteadily on her feet. At first she thought that she might have expended too much chakra but soon realized that she was just undergoing shock. She held back a sob, wondering why everything she came in contact with fell to ruin.

Tazuna barked some parting words to the rest of his crew and helped her home. His hand stayed insistently and firmly on her arm despite her best efforts to shake it off.

When they reached Tazuna's home, she was handed over to Tsunami who helped her to bed. For the second time in two consecutive days, Sakura's last thoughts as she drifted off to sleep was about Chīsana.

'_I just want to go home.'_


	8. Eight

Chapter Eight

* * *

Like all the nights before, Sakura woke up as the waning moon kissed the trees on the horizon. Weak moonlight guided her path through the hall and out the door. She only stopped walking when she reached the shore and felt water tickle the back of her knees.

Sakura gazed out at the sea, finding peace in the silence of the night. She wondered if it was possible to walk all the way to the end of the sea and fall off the edge. Where would she go, if that were to happen? Would she go back home? Or would she wind up even further back in time?

Sakura tried to recall her last day in her own time, before this nightmare journey-to-the-past. She was on a mission, she thinks. In Yu no kuni. Because she remembered sweating while she was there. There was a festival—or was it a fight? She recalled crackers— explosions? She was asleep. Or was she knocked out?

And then—

Then what?

The moon, Sakura remembered the moon. It was a full moon. She was on her back, gravel digging into her skin, looking up at the full moon. There were loud noises in the background but she was too tired to look up. She closed her eyes and—

Sakura was sobbing before her knees hit the water.

She was dead. She was _fucking_ dead. _She died._ _OhmyGod. _

She ducked her head into the water, screaming with all the power in her lungs. Bubbles surrounded her, blocking her vision. When she came back up for air, coughing and still crying, the night remained untouched. The peace, undisrupted.

Nothing has changed, and yet everything has.

Sakura dragged herself away from the water, lest she was tempted to drown herself in the shallows and end her misery for good.

She climbed the tallest tree she could find and watched the sun rise from one of its branches. It was just as the sun has fully risen that Sakura became aware enough to notice a chakra signature at the bottom of her tree.

She dropped roughly to the ground. "What."

Kakashi nodded in greeting, cheerful despite her less-than-warm welcome. "I heard about the, ah _accident_ at the bridge."

"And."

"Well, I came to check on you. Heard you were close to the kid."

Sakura didn't deign to reply. Kakashi, it seems, wasn't the type to let that hinder the conversation. "I'd like to thank you for the Ginseng as well. It worked wonders for my chakra."

She gave a non-committal hum and nodded in reply. Kakashi pushed through regardless. "I would also like to discuss your predicament."

Fuck this man. Does he have some innate ability to bring up the very same topic she'd been trying to avoid this entire time? Sakura wouldn't be surprised if he did.

"Sasuke reported to me that you mentioned some theories about our Sakura's current whereabouts?"

Sakura grit her teeth. "I did not." She forced out, "I only said that she's either dead or alive and that's not something I can confirm."

"I see."

She glanced at him warily, looking for a reaction. She was sorely disappointed. Kakashi's emotions were locked up tight, hidden behind years of training. He was used to losing people.

Before Sakura could start bawling all over again, he continued the conversation. "And what about you? Will you be able to return to your time?"

She sniffled, looking straight ahead and exhaling slowly through her nose. "No."

Here, Kakashi looked sceptical. He raised his one visible eyebrow. "Oh?"

She clenched her jaw, refusing to explain any further. Kakashi nodded in acquiescence. "Am I to understand that you'll be accompanying us back to Konoha then?"

Sakura hesitated. "I don't know."

"Well then, I must inform you that if you are planning to stay here in this time, I will be forced to take you in as a missing-nin. My Hokage would not appreciate me allowing someone of your caliber to walk away."

What. Is that a threat? Why the hell was he telling her all this?

Ah.

He thought she was staying here of her own free will and not out of circumstances. Like the fact that _she's dead._

How was she supposed to reply to that? What could she say? This man did not trust her, and the longer she stayed here, the worse things became. What was she to do? How could she fix this?

Kakashi was already walking away. No doubt, he was waiting for her to bolt. Put up a fight. Prove to him that he was right not to trust her.

Sakura did no such thing. With all her heart, she only wanted to go home. Any semblance of home. She wasn't about to screw that up by getting locked away. Or worse, executed.

"Kakashi-sensei would protect me with his life." She said. Her voice carried strong, filled with conviction. "In fact, he did. Kakashi-sensei took a knife to his back trying to save me from _Obito._"

Kakashi froze in his steps. "_Obito is dead."_ He hissed, sorrow and rage crackling violently in his voice.

"He is very much alive." Sakura disagreed. "And he brought War right up to our doorsteps."

"_He would never!"_ Kakashi bellowed, swiveling around to face her.

"Wouldn't he?" she challenged. "If he saw his best friend murder his first love?"

Kakashi faltered, taking a step back. "I—I didn't…"

"You didn't kill her. I know." she said softly. "She jumped in front of you."

Kakashi glanced at her. Regret, grief, confusion, surprise. All written on his face.

Sakura spoke from her heart.

"_You _told me this, Kakashi-sensei. You never would have if you didn't trust me." She stepped forward, yearning to make him understand her. "Konoha is my _home._ I would never betray her. You know this. Tsunade-shishou would _never_ train someone who was not loyal to Konoha." She wiped away a tear. "You lost little Sakura. And I'm _so sorry_ that I caused that. If I could bring her back, I would. I'd do anything to make it happen."

Sakura sighed. She didn't know where she was going with her words. She wiped more tears from her face. "I need your help, Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi was still, almost catatonic in his posture. Sakura was keenly aware of time passing.

He gasped suddenly, making her flinch in surprise. Kakashi turned around and stumbled away wordlessly.

And Sakura knew she was damned.


	9. Nine

Chapter Nine

* * *

It was Sasuke who finally stumbled upon her hours later, pouting at the bottom of a tree. Sakura was throwing pebbles any which way she could and grumbling to herself. She stiffened up considerably when he revealed himself.

"Hello."

"Hn."

There was a stand-off, each watching the other warily. Sasuke shifted his weight from one foot to the other. Sakura wondered how long he was going to be there.

"Can you go away—"

"Can you move—"

They paused.

"_No!_"

Sakura frowned and looked away resolutely. "Find somewhere else to train." She finally said, going back to her stones.

Sasuke grit his teeth. "_I can't._" He gestured to the tree he was standing next to. The lower third of the tree was littered with slash marks and large foot shaped dents going up to the start of the first branch. "This one has my progress on it."

"It ain't much." Sakura coughed to herself.

The words earned a scowl that Sakura pointedly ignored. Yes, taking your anger out on a kid was wildly immature, and Sasuke has done nothing to warrant such bite from her.

Sasuke must have decided to ignore her words. He positioned himself in front of the tree, took a running start and almost reached the first branch before the bark exploded and Sasuke was forced to land.

_Too much chakra._

Jeez, this kid had way too much power and absolutely no idea how to utilize it. Which was better than the alternative: an overpowered, half-mad, traumatized man-child who tried to kill her. _Twice._

"TEME!"

Both Sasuke and Sakura flinched at the sheer volume of the call.

"OI SASUKE, WHERE ARE YA?"

Sasuke clicked his tongue in irritation and glared in the direction of the shout. He did not move to reveal himself to Naruto nor did he seem to be planning on doing anything of the sort. Lucky for Naruto, he found him without the help.

"I can't believe you just left me at the house, you bastard." Naruto exclaimed in indignation.

"Tch, worried you'd get lost or something?"

Naruto rolled his eyes. "I'm more worried about the weird forest lady coming back to kill us when we're not looking." He caught sight of Sakura casually lounging on the grass and blinked in bewilderment. "Speaking of weird ladies," he muttered, slowly inching closer to her.

Sakura watched curiously as the boy squatted in front of her and watched her closely. Eyes flitted between her own, looking for something unspecified. He finally nodded in confirmation and got up.

..._What?_

"Kakashi-sensei told me to tell you that he'll be escorting Tazuna-san from now on."

"...Cool."

Not.

But…understandable. The information could have been stated more eloquently. Ironically, Sakura wished she could turn back time on that particular situation. She wondered what else could have been done to make her case but nothing came to mind. What could she offer a man with undying loyalty to his country?

She came back to herself to see Naruto still standing in front of her.

"Do you need something?"

"Yeah, can you move. That's my tree." Naruto pointed to the tree she was leaning against.

Sakura blinked and looked up. Sure enough, more slash marks littered the tree. No foot-shaped gouges though. Meaning Naruto was not pulling on enough chakra to stick to the tree.

She grumbled and got up, moving to another tree across from them.

Sasuke took the time to run up his tree twice more. Each attempt was accentuated by exploding bark and frustrated grunts.

In contrast, Naruto seemed to be using pure stubbornness to conquer his tree. He kept running until gravity acted on him. Out of his many attempts, Naruto landed more times on his head than he did on his feet, with no improvements to his vertical distance.

They looked to have made no significant progress in their chakra-control training. Which was strange, because from her vague recollections of Naruto's bragging, they should have been improving by leaps and bounds

And yet.

She eyed Sasuke furiously stabbing his tree.

It was day three and they looked to have gotten absolutely nowhere.

"Argh! That's it!" Naruto huffed, hopping to his feet from his latest effort. He proceeded to empty his holster of sharp objects into the tree.

Yikes.

Sakura was not getting in the middle of that.

They were at it all afternoon. Even as the sun reached its zenith, the marks have stubbornly lingered below the first tree-branch.

"Dammit!" Sasuke hissed, dodging a stray kunai from Naruto's recent attempt at subduing his tree via pointy instruments. "Watch it, dumbass."

"Watch yourself, bastard." Naruto growled. "Stupid tree. Stupid Kakashi-sensei. Stupid _mission._"

"Tch. Not my fault you can't get anything right."

"Why you—"

"OKAY!" Sakura finally interrupted. Things were getting a little too heated and perhaps a tad _too _nostalgic for her tastes.

"You're both doing it wrong, that's why you're not getting anywhere. Did Kakashi-sensei explain what, exactly, you're supposed to do?"

They gave her blank expressions.

_Of course, why am I not surprised? This is Kakashi, after all._

"_Okay._ Sasuke!" She declared, marching to his tree and motioning for him to follow.

"Well," Sakura sighed when he grudgingly did. She gestured to the tree as a whole. "I don't know how to tell you this, buddy. This tree's seen better days."

Sasuke scoffed and pointedly ignored the snickers in the background.

"I'd say you're putting too much chakra into your tree, but you already knew that, right?"

At his nod, Sakura launched into a brief explanation. "While what you're doing is technically correct, it's not just about putting out enough chakra. You're actually supposed to connect your chakra to the tree's. The reason tree-climbing is good for learning chakra control is because of how little chakra a tree contains. Put too much, you dent the tree; put too little, you fall on your head."

She threw Naruto a significant look at that, earning a smirk from Sasuke and an indignant 'Hey!' from Naruto.

"So, try to equalize your chakra with the tree and you'll start to see some progress."

Sasuke nodded once more and she moved on to Naruto.

"You're problem, Naruto, is that you have _way_ too much chakra."

Naruto grinned at that comment. "Isn't that a good thing?" He asked.

"Oh absolutely." She agreed. "Except, what's the point of having that much chakra if you can't even use it."

"True, true." Naruto sniffed. "Say, you mind telling me what exactly this chakra is?"

Sakura staggered. "You want me to...explain chakra?"

He nodded.

"Oh, well it's actually…" She explained quickly and concisely. An inexplicable sense of _Déjà vu_ hit her.

"Anyway, I think your problem is that you're not actually using your chakra." Sakura finally stated.

Naruto scratched his head nonchalantly. "So how do I do that?"

"Well, what do you do when you want to do a jutsu?"

"I think about it really hard?"

Sakura almost slapped a hand to her head but restrained herself. She didn't want to discourage the boy even further, Lord knows he's belittled enough.

"Okay, that's a good start. What do you think about?"

"That I really wanna get this jutsu to work."

Sakura hummed thoughtfully. "And do you feel anything when you do the hand-signs?"

Naruto frowned in contemplation. "Yeah, I get this weird tingly feeling in my fingers."

"Do you think you can make that tingly feeling happen now?"

"Yeah, sure!" Naruto agreed enthusiastically. He brought a hand forward and glowered at it.

Sakura used that moment's respite to peak at Sasuke's progress. He had his eyes closed, one palm stretched forward to rest on the tree. Well, atleast he was taking her advice, the Sasuke she knew would never heed a word she said.

She turned around to a hand in her face, glowing bright blue. "Heh, I did it!" Naruto cheered from behind his arm.

Sakura smiled softly. "Good job, kid."

Naruto grinned widely in reply.

They practiced directing chakra to their feet which Naruto got the hang of after a few tries. After Sakura made sure he can sustain the energy around his feet for more than a minute, she let him try the tree climbing exercise again. Naruto was able to take three steps before the bark exploded and he landed on his bottom. But it was a start and Naruto seemed thrilled with his progress.

By evening, both boys were able to reach halfway up the tree before being forced to land. They seemed happy with their progress and that filled Sakura with a certain sense of satisfaction.

The trio returned to Tazuna's house by twilight, hungry and drained.

And stopped short right in front of door.

Sequestered around the door—and blocking their path—was about a dozen or so villagers, all of them, staring at the new-comers.

"Is the bridge complete? Are we having a party?" Naruto stage-whispered.

"No, it's not a party." Tazuna explained tiredly, emerging from the crowd. He sent Sakura a considering gaze.

"They're here looking for a doctor."


	10. Ten

Chapter Ten

* * *

Uchiha Sasuke has always had keen, almost supernaturally perceptive eyes. Many have lauded his astuteness, others spoke derisively about his inherited gifts. Regardless of anyone's opinions, Sasuke worked hard to train his familial traits into the pinnacle of peak performance.

It was due to this training that Sasuke was able to look _underneath the underneath_ and discern exactly what Kakashi-sensei was asking for when he sent them out to train that morning: _espionage. _

Kakashi-sensei, who spent less than an day's worth of time with this _imposter_ was able to correctly deduce and utilize her weakness. Her teammates, _of course_.

Like morons, they fell for it too. Naruto skipped into the trap like a deer into a meadow.

Sasuke could not deny the anger and mortification crossing his frame every time he thought about it. Manipulated by his own team leader into spying on his dead team-mate's ghost.

As usual, Sasuke ignored the pang that accompanied the thought of his team-mate. He assumed it would go away soon. Sakura was a naive child play-pretending a dangerous job in a dangerous world. She was gone before she saw reality and in a way, she was lucky.

She would be forgotten, like all the weak.

"Well?" Kakashi-_sensei_ asked from beside him, "Did you guys have fun?"

While his posture was as nonchalant as always, Kakashi's single exposed eye regarded Sasuke with a wild, searching gaze. Something _or_ _someone_ has disturbed his sensei into a state of utter paranoia the likes of never before.

Sasuke glanced at the woman seated on the stairs. A long queue of civilians waited patiently in front of her, each being treated with a smile and careful attention.

Sasuke mentally scoffed. How could someone so _soft_ inspire so much mistrust.

He flashed a glare at Kakashi-sensei's over-eager inquiry. "She helped the idiot and I with the chakra exercise."

Kakashi raised his one visible eyebrow and opened his mouth to speak, the action near-invisible because of the mask on his face.

"—which, last time I checked, is _your_ job." Sasuke continued viciously. "You left us in the hands of potential danger and you're asking me _if we had fun?_"

The remark caught Kakashi off-guard. "That's cute." he teased, "Weren't you the one who defended this 'potential danger' not two days ago?"

Sasuke looked away but Kakashi was right. He remembered Naruto advancing on her and couldn't hold back from interfering. It was probably because he was so used to defending her—_Sakura_, Sasuke surmised. He refused to think more on the subject and banished that train of thought.

"I'm asking, Sasuke, because I need to know why she's here. Knowing her motive might help us send her back." Kakashi said, discarding carelessness in the face of honesty. "Who knows, if she leaves, that might be enough to get Sakura back."

Sasuke felt his heart skip a beat at Kakashi's words. _What if_— He clamped down on that thought and shook his head in frustration. Somehow, he got the feeling that Kakashi did not care about Sakura's whereabouts as long as the woman in front of them went back to where she came from. _Permanently._

"She was tight-lipped about herself. We weren't able to get anything out of her."

_Not even Naruto._ Sasuke thought to himself. He understood his limitations when it came to information gathering, especially the type that involved communication. Naruto, on the other hand, was unassuming in his questioning. People opened up to him unconsciously.

Except for her.

In fact, the woman seemed to become more closed off, the more Naruto spoke. He hadn't even been asking nosy questions.

Sasuke watched with barely concealed exasperation as Naruto grabbed a messy pile of bandages and rushed back to the woman. She smiled gently and unraveled the mess efficiently. It spoke of years of experience.

It seems Naruto has turned a complete one-eighty on his feelings about this, this _intruder_. From accusing her of murder and assaulting her to acting as her personal assistant in the span of _one day. _This guy had to have been dropped on his head as a child. Multiple times.

Kakashi pinched the bridge of his nose in growing frustration. "Keep me informed then, when you do have something substantial."

Sasuke thought privately that Kakashi-sensei would have better luck getting Naruto to change out of his jumper than he would getting information out of this woman.

He wisely kept that thought to himself.

* * *

While she worked, Sakura lent an ear to Tazuna's recapitulation on how he got saddled with the peculiar group of travelers.

"Found 'em waitin' near the bridge on the way back from work. Wouldn't leave, the stubborn buggers."

The man Sakura was checking over sent Tazuna a magnificent glare at his words.

Tazuna scratched his beard in embarrassment. "We don't actually 'ave a doctor here in the village." he continued, "Last one died around the time Gato took charge."

"If you ask me," Her patient slid in, voice conspiratorial, "Gato probably took 'er out."

The man could be right. Targeting medics might be one of the oldest and most effective tactics in the Art of War. If your opponent, by some stroke of luck, escaped your hand in battle, you can be rest assured they won't _stay_ alive for long without a Medic.

Tazuna frowned at the man but didn't interject.

"The medic you saw the other day was their apprentice. He's a good kid but he doesn't know much about healing."

Sakura's patient hummed in agreement.

She sent the man off with a bandaged arm and a warning to keep it still.

Tazuna turned to her, expectantly. He'd been lurking around the room for a while and she knew it meant he had something to discuss. Sakura had a feeling she wouldn't like what he had to say.

"Yes?"

"Hansuke-kun's awake." Tazuna stated, face morphed into an expression of faux-innocence.

"That's great." She replied stiffly, busying herself with cleaning up. Internally though, Sakura could breathe just a little bit easier and walk just a little bit straighter.

"Who's that?" Naruto piped up from behind them, startling Tazuna. Sakura snatched up the excess herbs in Naruto's arms and sat down to pack them into a burlap sling-bag.

"Oh—uh" Tazuna stuttered out. "He's one of my workers. Sakura here saved him after a really bad accident." He turned to Sakura.

"She's the only reason he's alive."

Sakura could only hang her head in shame. _I'm also the reason he's in this position._

She tried to forget his face, the blood on her hands and his father's haunting lament still ringing in her ears.

"You should go see him." Naruto commented frankly.

"Maybe." Sakura mumbled, knowing that her guilt would never allow her to face him so soon.

"He asked for you." Tazuna baited.

"Let's go tomorrow then!" Naruto exclaimed.

They looked to her, waiting for an answer.

Sakura wordlessly passed the bag to Tazuna and went to find Tsunami.

By the sound of clamouring behind her, she knew for a fact that she would be nursing a headache in the near future.

* * *

Dinner that night was awkward and mostly silent except for an eating tournament between the two pre-teens that everyone else ignored.

Sasuke lost, of course. He went to sleep annoyed, a smug Naruto following along.

Sakura intended to do the same but caught Kakashi's eye and promptly sat back down.

Tsunami, reading the atmosphere, squeezed Sakura's hand in encouragement and ushered Inari to bed.

A few minutes were spent in muted silence before Kakashi cleared his throat and set down a thick sheaf of parchment and an inkbrush.

"Tazuna-san. The mis-identification of your mission has caused quite a dilemma at the mission office. As you know, there is a huge discrepancy in mission cost and pay between A-ranks and C-ranks. Not to mention the issue of putting some of our most inexperienced agents at unnecessary risk. Therefore, our Hokage has recommended that you may pay the rest of the owed sum—as well as a minor fine—over the course of the next few years—provided, of course, that business is booming and the bridge is completed. Are we in agreement?"

Sakura felt a sudden chill enter her body at the mention of the Hokage. How long has Kakashi been communicating with him? Is she..is she compromised?

_That's it, then. _She thought faintly, _Goodbye freedom, hello jail bars and interrogations. _

Sakura schooled her face into one of professional disinterest. If she was to be taken out, she'd rather they didn't know how she felt in her last few moments.

Kakashi glanced her way for a second before redirecting his attention to Tazuna again.

"Yeah, that'll be acceptable." Tazuna affirmed. His face soured quickly though, when he saw the quoted figures.

Sakura leaned over and blinked in shock as well. _Minor fine, indeed._

Tazuna did not argue against the amount. He looked over the agreement and signed at the end with a resigned grimace.

He returned the forms to Kakashi who gave it a cursory glance before bidding the bridge-builder goodnight.

They waited in silence as Tazuna slowly ambled down the hall and into his room. When the door finally shut, Kakashi straightened and folded the contract into his jacket pocket before producing a scroll emblazoned with the Hokage's insignia.

"For you." He said, handing it over.

Sakura broke the wax insignia and unraveled the letter.

_...sincere apologies about your current situation…_

_...we offer asylum in this trying time…_

_...and help you in any way…_

_...only ask that, in return…_

_...you provide intelligence on current and future events…_

_...on both a national and international level…_

_...of the next ten years…_

_...if, under any circumstances you are unwilling to continue working with us, or have not been persuaded in the first place by the contents of this letter then all negotiations will be terminated and…_

"...you will be prosecuted as an enemy of the state."

Kakashi nodded once to reinforce the seriousness of the missive.

Sakura threw the scroll onto the table in a careless manner. "I suppose you'll be the one to 'off me', so to speak?"

"Yes, that'll be me."

Honestly, she saw this coming, but it hurt nonetheless.

She drummed her fingers on the wood, thinking through her options. She could always spend the rest of her life wandering the country. It sounds like fun and she could earn a living through her medicine. But she'd probably be running from assassins for a long time.

She could also return to Konoha and strike up a different bargain.

What could a medic from the future offer to a senile old man who wouldn't survive the year _and _is responsible for multiple war crimes, genocide, raising a psychopath, and the generation of a whole slew of high-profile missing-nins?

Death, and he'd be lucky if it was quick.

Her eyes returned to the letter. Something about it was bothering her. The Third Hokage may have committed countless horrors in his lifetime, but he was never quick to threaten. That's why Sakura resented the man so much, every atrocity he carried out was a conscious and deliberate choice.

"You could always go back." Kakashi said, when Sakura exceeded the appropriate amount of time for an affirmative answer.

"Back where?" She asked, already exasperated with this conversation.

"Back to where you came from, back to your _timeline_, I suppose."

Sakura snorted. As a ghost, maybe.

Kakashi narrowed his singular visible eye in suspicion. "What's your motive for being here, if I may ask?"

"Your guess is as good as mine, pal." She said, offhand. Sakura chuckled internally at the hilarity of calling her Sensei _pal. _

"Why are you feeding these villagers?"

Sakura blinked in surprise.

"Wha-"

"Why did you save that boy? Why are you healing these people?"

"Because they're starving? Because he was bleeding out?! _Because they're suffering?_"

She slammed her fist down in outrage, "What are you trying to imply here?!"

Kakashi leaned back casually. "I'm just trying to figure out your intentions—"

"My _intentions_? _My-_my-my motive? My _motive_, Kakashi, is that I'm fucking dead."

Sakura paused to let it sink in.

She regretted opening her mouth already, but Sakura was not one to stop a rant once it started.

"That's why I'm here, that's why I can't seem to reach Chīsana and that's why I can't. Fucking. _Go home._"

Sakura was breathing hard, voice heavy with emotion. "So if you wanna be a dick to me, that's fine. If you don't want me here, I can go. But _fuck_ if I'm gonna voluntarily march back into Konoha so you can torture information out of me and then finish me off. I don't plan on dying _twice_ in one week."

"You have a really bad impression of Konoha's T&I division."

"Do I?" She arched a brow. "I'm best friends with the head of T&I. I think I know what I'm getting into."

Kakashi conceded to that.

"So, take the deal."

"HA!" Sakura couldn't help throwing back her head and laughing at the absurdity of it all. "Listen, fuckwit. _You_ trained me, I'm not stupid. The minute I walk into Konoha, it's game over for me."

"So, what, you're gonna skip Wave and go sight-seeing the Great Five."

"Probably."

"You said you know me." Kakashi stated, "Then you know you can't win."

Sakura barked out a laugh. "Give me a break. I've fought Gods. And _I've won._"

For his part, Kakashi had never heard more terrifying words.

* * *

Absolutely chuffed to see you guys enjoying the story.

Just to clarify, the dream-scene Naruto remembers in Chapter 7 of Timeline is from Naruto Shippuden. Sakura's memories are from the Tenchi Bridge mission where Naruto transforms into his Version 2 form.

For those inquiring about pairings, I haven't actually thought about it all that much. Other than a vague plot outline, most of the story elements of the next chapter come to me as I'm writing the previous one. Therefore, I'm just as surprised as you guys at the resulting word-vomit. So, in that vein of thought, anyone and everyone can be a potential significant other!

Also for those asking: Yes, not only is this story AU, Sakura also comes from an AU where she's twenty three and not married to Sasuke and did not give birth to Sarada at—checks Narutopedia— AT AGE TWENTY ONE, WTF?!

I THOUGHT SHE'D BE OLDER!

I also only just came to know that Sarada means—checks many blogs—COOKING OIL?!

I—I need to lie down…

Till next time!


	11. Eleven

Chapter Eleven

* * *

The dawn brought her some semblance of peace in a world turned on its head. She assumed that, as in her case, sleep evaded everyone in the house that night; perhaps with the exception of Naruto, who looked like he could determinedly sleep through major world catastrophes.

Ironically, in the years since the war ended, her Naruto had been plagued by chronic insomnia. While he denied any signs of PTSD during many of his bi-yearly check-ups, Sakura couldn't help but worry for him.

He spends his extra hours drawing up lesson plans for his academy students. A hobby, he says, to reassure them of his long-term goals. Sasuke would smirk and goad him into challenges. Kakashi would hide a smile behind his worn novels and ruffle Naruto's significantly longer hair. Sakura would laugh and tease his horrible teaching system; and invent a completely new one to keep him on track.

They all knew he stopped wanting to be Hokage a long time ago.

Sasuke...Sasuke divided his time equally between the village and the rest of the Great Five. He took up Jiraiya's mantle of spy-master and continued his work. When he was in the village, Sasuke spent most of his time trying to fix up the long-neglected Police Force. More often than not, Sakura had to pull him away when his memories overwhelmed his task.

Kakashi—_her _Kakashi—finally surrendered to Tsunade and took up the mantle of Hokage, albeit reluctantly. He used to threaten her with the title when Sakura got too cocky.

Actually, now that she thought about it, he might have been pleading with her to take it considering the amount of times he's said it.

Tsunade-shishou, the brilliant lunatic that she was, retired to become a full-time alcoholic and gambling addict. She would mutter something along the lines of 'I deserve this, dammit' everytime Sakura brought it up. She also nagged, coerced and intimidated Shizune into taking over the hospital.

Tenzō and Sai retired from the Service to open an Arts and Crafts store. They unironically called it _Inkwood_.

Ino enjoyed terrorizing prisoners enough to become assistant head director of T&I under Ibiki.

Dammit, she missed them _so damn much._

Last night's conversation deteriorated before it even began and Sakura left quickly, before she attempted murder upon her own countryman.

From her position on the roof, Sakura was able to observe the silhouette of the incomplete bridge in the distance. The waxing sunlight refracted off the water and left an auburn glow in its wake.

She closed her eyes and basked in the warmth. It reminded her of Naruto. _What would he have done, if he was in her place?_

Sakura took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.

She looked up resolutely and leapt off the roof.

* * *

"Sakura-chan!"

"Hansuke-kun." She smiled politely.

"I didn't think you'd come."

"I didn't either." She glances at the golden mop of hair beside her. "Someone persuaded me otherwise."

Naruto grinned in barely contained enthusiasm.

"We're here to save the villagers!" He announced, bounding closer to Hansuke with a basket-full of wild mint. He stuffed a bundle into Hansuke's mouth before taking off down the hall.

"_Shit._ No, Naruto!" Sakura gasped, swiping at him but he was already out the door behind her, cackling wickedly.

Hansuke's pained laughter stopped her from going after Naruto.

Sakura dropped her sackful of edibles at the doorway and made her way to his bedside.

"The kid's a riot." He choked, spitting out a mouthful of mint. Sakura snorted in amusement. She brushed away stray leaves and brought a glowing hand to his abdomen. Hansuke watched her work with wonder and resignation.

"I'm sorry." She whispered to her hands, unable to look him in the eye. "If—If I hadn't wandered off—"

Hansuke grasped her cool, shaking hands in his. "I'm alive. That's all that matters."

Her tears brimmed over and Sakura swiped them away with an awkward laugh.

"Besides, I still have my hands. That's all a carpenter needs."

Sakura swallowed and looked away. She admired his maturity in the face of devastation. She does not know how she would react if she was in his place. Certainly not with as much poise as him.

Hansuke glanced out the window and back to her. He licked his lips in nervousness.

"Promise me something." He requested, face suddenly severe.

Sakura's eyes flitted between his and she nodded slowly.

"The bridge, it has to be complete." A feral glint entered his eyes. "_No matter the cost_."

Memories flashed across her mind's eye, scars from a lifetime ago.

_He's asking for too much_, She thinks, _It's too high a cost._

Sakura studied Hansuke's face, the gaunt lines and sunken eyes. She glanced down at his paralyzed legs. _No, _she conceded, _he knows, and he's willing to bear it. _

She doesn't remember the last time she held such powerful convictions. Probably the time she tried to kill Sas—

Sakura exhaled.

"Okay."

* * *

As she was exiting the room, Sakura spotted Sasuke dragging a tightly bound, gagged and severely disappointed Naruto behind him. On seeing her, Naruto's wiggling intensified.

"Hn. He was annoying." Sasuke told her, sounding peeved.

Sakura didn't know if she was biting back an amused laugh or an exasperated sigh. She settled for removing his gag—"Sakura-nee!"—and quickly putting it back on at the sheer volume of his voice.

"Okay," She breathed, "Your sensei is _not_ gonna like this. There's something I have to do and I need your help."

Naruto nodded vigorously at her, muffled words straining against his restraints. Sasuke regarded her with calculated suspicion.

"It's a heist." She explained frankly. "I need a distraction."

Sasuke continued to stare.

"You get to beat up bad guys."

He frowned in consideration.

"It's great training?"

"...okay."

* * *

Footsteps approached quickly. There was some furious mumbling outside, then the doors burst open.

"Gatō-sama!"

"Zōri, I _specifically _told you not to—"

"Sir, our men are being attacked at the harbour!"

Thunderous silence met his words.

"_Who would dare?_"

"M-Momochi Zabuza, sir, and the kid that was with him."

* * *

Naruto cackled wildly, swiping his considerably longer legs under shaky feet and brandishing a henged kunai.

"Zabuza-sama, we need to make this quick." Sasuke interrupted stiffly. He flipped his significantly longer hair over his shoulder before delivering a quick spinning kick to an approaching thug.

Naruto, henged as Zabuza, continued to create pandemonium. Sasuke used the proffered distraction to slip away. A plain Kabuki mask nicked from the house muffled his breath. A dense mist, courtesy of Older Sakura, covered his tracks.

Once Sasuke made his way to the edge of the harbour, he proceeded to cut loose as many ships as he could. The third ship he encountered had a guard detail. Three men, all armed. They surveyed the altercation from atop the deck and didn't seem inclined to join in.

Sasuke circled around behind them. He backtracked a few steps, taking a moment to stretch his muscles. A running leap, heart in his throat. Wind rushing his face, a quick surge of chakra and—_Yes! _

Gravity no longer applied to the likes of Uchiha Sasuke.

He glanced down. Almost 20 feet lay between him and the water-line. One of his feet went through the wooden hull. Pulling it out caused more damage and Sasuke nearly missed grabbing onto the large splinter that fell out.

He still had trouble equalizing the amount of chakra he sent to his feet. Something he has to correct when he gets the time.

He tossed the splinter back into the gap he made and scaled the rest of the way up.

Soundlessly, Sasuke climbed over the railing and hid himself in the shadows. Two of the three men were conversing with each other, the third was nowhere to be seen.

He made quick work of the two thugs, using a rope to swing close and kick them off the boat when their backs were turned. Then, he went hunting for the third.

Sasuke found the third man inside a cabin fiddling with a medium-sized safe. After a short scuffle, during which he earned a long slash across his shoulder, Sasuke knocked the man out and left him tied up.

He freed two more ships before circling back to the source of the uproar. Naruto was _still_ fighting the guards when he was told _specifically_ to immobilize them _quickly._

"Tch." Sasuke clicked in annoyance.

He watched Naruto make two more transformed clones and strike down half a dozen men. Additionally, he's_ still_ _not_ _knocking them out._

Sasuke shook his head as the men got up and charged Naruto again.

"Zabuza-sama!" He snarled. "You're supposed to take them _out,_ dumbass."

"I got this, _teme._" Naruto grunted in reply, parrying what looked to be an _axe_ with his kunai.

Sasuke punched out the singular man that lunged at him with a—is that a _pitchfork?_—and went to find Sakura.

He found her casually stacking ten-foot bars of iron like a child's _stacking toy_. Thoroughly unnerved, Sasuke continued watching her until she noticed his presence.

"Sasuke." She acknowledged with a wave. "Could you jam that door in place for me?"

He nodded non-committally.

"How do you do that?" He asked, thoughtlessly. He regretted the words the moment they were out of his mouth.

"I use chakra to amplify my muscles." She replies, with the air of someone who was used to answering questions.

"That only gives you a fifty-percent boost." He mumbled, vaguely recalling his text-book explanation.

Sakura nodded in agreement. "Yes, because you're only coating your muscles with chakra."

"As opposed to?"

"As opposed to completely saturating them."

Sakura turned and leveled a warning look at him. "Something," She continued, "that requires extremely precise chakra control and great familiarity with the human anatomy."

Sasuke scowled at her warning and skulked away.

He used a thin metal rod that he found lying around and leveraged it against the top of the shutter door in such a way that it can't be opened by someone impeded by gravity. Meaning, if you're not a ninja, you ain't opening anything.

Sasuke casually walked down the wooden beam holding up the shed.

Sakura was impatient by the time he reached the bottom.

"You done?" She asked sarcastically.

Sasuke frowned at her and didn't reply.

She picked up two unconscious men who were hidden behind the stack of bars and left them leaning on some trees. Patting one on the head, she asked, "Where's Naruto?"

"Tch, wasting time."

She raised an eyebrow.

"He's still fighting."

She rolled her eyes and sighed in exasperation. "That kid."

She spent a few minutes restoring the mist that had dissipated. By the time she was done, Sasuke could barely see her outline. He inched closer, so as to not lose track of her.

Sakura quickly used a Henge to transform into Zabuza and proceeded to _lift the whole goddamn mountain of iron. Whatthefuck?_

The only part of this situation that was remotely comforting to him is the fact that she looked like she was genuinely straining when picking up the pile.

"Let's go." She grunted.

Sasuke led the way.

It was slow going, they crossed the road as quietly as possible considering their baggage. Once they reached the edge of the harbour, Sasuke scaled the only tethered boat—a barge—and set to messing with the crane on-board.

After fiddling with a multitude of buttons and almost setting off an alarm, he was finally able to make the hook of the crane descend, though Sasuke was sceptical of which switch eventually accomplished the task. Rushing to the railing, he signalled to Sakura and found that Naruto—now illusion-free—had finally caught up with them. She secured the hook to a chain holding the iron together and gave him a thumbs up.

Sasuke returned to the operator's cab.

Ten minutes later and the crane still hadn't budged an inch. He stared at the buttons in frustration.

"Hey teme, what're ya doin'?"

Sasuke flinched, banging a hand onto the control panel.

A weird buzz emitted from in front of them and both the boys froze—only to sigh in relief when the crane finally, _finally_ started working. They watched the pile inch slowly upwards.

Now that their self-appointed mission was reaching its final leg, Sasuke poundered his actions and was surprised at how versatile the tree walking exercise truly was. He was getting stronger, slowly but surely.

"Where's—" He started. _The lady_ he wanted to say, which was inappropriate considering their familiarity. _Onēsan_, Sasuke gritted his teeth against the memories, _never again._ _Sakura _was—_no,_ too much, too soon. Except, that was her name wasn't it?

"Where's Sakura-san?" He asked at last.

"Oh, she's pushing the ships out to sea." Naruto said, offhand.

"_What?" _

"She's—" He repeated, confusion marring his words, "pushing the ships...out to sea?"

They stared at each other.

...and rushed to the bow of the ship.

"_She's pushing the ships out to sea!"_ Naruto exclaimed.

_Literally. _

She was literally moving the ships away from the harbour and into open water _with her bare hands._

"Holy crap, that is _so _cool!" Naruto exclaimed. "Sakura-nee-chan! You're awesome!"

In Sasuke's eyes, her image flickered. A vision overlapped her form. For a second, a miniscule sliver of eternity, she looked Ancient. Powerful. Other-worldly. A goddess wreaking havoc on earth.

He blinked and Sakura was back, standing tall on the water.

Sasuke almost groaned in frustration. "She's _walking_ on_ water."_

"She's—_she's walking on water!_"

He contemplated pushing Naruto off the barge.

* * *

Today was a good day, Kakashi decided.

No trouble-makers to watch out for. No murder-children to baby-sit. No time-travellers whose motives he should question. Just the open sea on the horizon and a good read.

To make things even easier, there wasn't even a need to check on the bridge-builder. Every few minutes, he would hear Tazuna bark at someone and that was that.

Guard-duty was the best.

On that note, the commotion below him was deviating exceedingly from the norm.

Kakashi peeked down from his post atop the highest ledge on the bridge to find workers pointing at something out in the water. He visually combed through the mass of humans to find Tazuna. He was easy to find, standing at the railing, towering over the men surrounding him.

Kakashi watched Tazuna throw his head back and laugh.

"Kakashi-sensei!"

That's funny. He must be hearing things. That can't be _Naruto,_ his student, that he sent into town to watch over their suspicious house-guest.

Kakashi lowered his book to face the water.

Ah, he's seeing things too. That can't be _Sasuke_ on what looks to be a barge carrying building materials. He specifically told him not to let their friendly neighbourhood 'timetraveller' out of his sight.

The final nail on Kakashi's proverbial coffin was when their 'house-guest' exited the cabin of the barge and joined his two students at the bow of the ship.

_My, such strong hallucinations I keep having. Perhaps it's time I retire._

Kakashi elected to return to his book and ignore his hallucinatory visions.

It was less than ten minutes later when Kakashi realized that his visions were not likely to leave him alone.

"Sakura-san." He acknowledged, putting his cherished book back into his pocket, "How can I help you?"

He could pick up Naruto's boisterous voice as he told a heavily embellished tale of strife and animosity.

"Please tell me you did not make my precious little students _steal_ from a _very_ dangerous business tycoon." Kakashi stated pleasantly enough. Inside, his temper was close to a boiling point.

"No. They didn't do much stealing." Sakura leaned back on her arms casually. "Sabotage, yes. I'll also admit to them beating up a few of his minions. Nothing more dangerous than something you would encounter in a C-rank mission such as this."

"How _dare_ you—"

"Stop asking your students to spy on me."

Kakashi stopped short. He was caught, even if he wasn't being very covert about it.

"I will continue to act beyond the parameters of your mission. Call them off before they put themselves in grave danger by carrying out your orders."

Against his better judgement, Kakashi nodded.

He taught her well, he admitted begrudgingly to himself. Or rather, she knows him well enough to stay atleast two steps ahead of him.

They sat in silence, watching the sunset.

"They were perfectly safe. I would kill myself before I let anything happen to them."

Kakashi thought about Minato-sensei. He thought about Rin and with great difficulty, he thought about Obito.

To die for your teammates, that is something he can understand quite indubitably.

* * *

Your response to the last chapter has been AMAZING. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Y'all motivate me to write this story more than my own brain ever could.

I hope y'all are safe wherever y'all are and I hope this chapter helped some to alleviate a little of the boredom.

Also, I have a question for curiosity's sake.

Who do you guys ship Sakura with?

Some of y'all have asked if this is a KakaSaku fic and to be honest, I'm conflicted about that pairing. I've always been a fan of either NaruSaku or NaruSasuSaku.

Although, in this fic, neither of those are possible as there is a huge gap between the characters and that kind of relationship is not something I'm sure I can pull off writing in a healthy, non-predatory manner. Because of that, I've been toying with the idea of making this fic GEN.

Like I've said previously, I haven't thought about pairings all that much so I would love to hear your thoughts about it. Let me know!

Also let me know your thoughts on today's chapter!

Till next time!


	12. Twelve

Chapter Twelve

* * *

"_Waraji!_ Bring me my binoculars!"

"Yes, Gatō-sama! Right away!"

Gatō snatched the device roughly and glowered out to sea.

Silence descended over the harbour for a second, quickly shattered by the sound of the binoculars exploding against the floor.

Gatō smoothened out the lapels of his linen suit and turned to his men.

"Bring me the swords-man. Preferably alive." He said to the onlooking crowd. "Waraji, get me a full report on what was stolen."

"Yes, boss."

Behind him, shadowed against the setting sun, were the smouldering ruins of Gatō's fleet.

* * *

Sakura spent the morning fretting over her decisions, second-guessing her every move and wondering if she put two children and a whole village-worth of innocent people in inconceivable danger.

She was so skittish in fact, that Tsunami firmly requested that she take a walk around the area and 'do what you ninja-folk do best'. Sakura blinked owlishly at the Lady of the house. She's never been told to 'fuck off' in so many words and so politely at that.

Gladly, she slunk off to the woods, sneaking past a thoroughly waterlogged and agitated duo.

"I don't know how she does it." Naruto whispered in bewilderment, piquing Sakura's curiosity. He was wringing his jacket out, almost strangling it in his frustration with most of the water dripping onto his shoe.

"There's gotta be a trick to it." Sasuke muttered to himself, completely ignoring Naruto. He pulled on the left shoulder of his shirt, revealing messily done bandages. "A-a Genjutsu, or maybe an elemental Ninjutsu—"

"Magic. Its gotta be." Naruto affirmed, vigorously shaking out his jacket.

Sakura was too far away by then to hear his reply but from Sasuke's body language, she assumed it was something scathing.

She doesn't know if Kakashi had reneged on his orders like she'd asked or if the boys were still shadowing her. Deciding to err on the side of caution, she elected to ask them what they were up to on her return.

Sakura took a detour that Tazuna once used and leisurely made her way down to the harbour. A bush of wild blackberries delayed her some and she spent the rest of her trip popping berries into her mouth.

It was only when she passed the same bush a second time that she realized that she was not, in fact, anywhere near the harbour and was actually, unmistakably _lost._

"_Fuck me." _She sighed in defeat and pocketed the rest of her berries.

Picking a random direction, Sakura marched into the underbrush with all the surety of a clueless traveller. She passed the same_ goddamn_ bush two more fucking times before stopping to collect her bearings.

She sighed and climbed the nearest tree, pausing near the top to locate any sign of civilization.

A glimpse of a roof caught her eye and Sakura was off, speeding through the trees.

When she finally stepped foot in the clearing, warning bells went off in her head and Sakura stilled, waiting for the feeling to pass. Instead she heard voices, _angry _voices; and she was convinced atleast one of them mentioned Gatō_. _Cursing her luck, she quickly backpedaled into the trees and suppressed her chakra as low as it would go. The voices looked like they were coming from the other side of the building in front of her.

Doing her best to stay quiet, Sakura leopard-crawled closer to the source of the commotion. As she reached around the corner of the building, the voices she heard gained some clarity.

"—you've got two options kid, either you bring your ass to Gatō-sama or we'll take you to him in a body bag. So which is it?"

Peeking through a conveniently placed bush, Sakura realized that she had stumbled upon an ongoing feud. Slightly to the right of her line of vision stood a teenager whose hunched back was turned to her. Beautiful obsidian hair flowed down their back, a feature Sakura noticed right away. An upturned basket of herbs was settled near their feet and they crouched over two unconscious bodies. The men on the ground looked like possible accomplices to the man standing further away and inadvertently facing her. Few others milled around behind him, their numbers hidden by the angle of her view around the corner.

The man who was speaking, a shifty looking character with ashy hair and scars running over both his eyes, took a step forward. "Well?"

Her breath caught.

Chakra rushed to her eyes, confirming her thoughts.

In retrospect, perhaps Sakura should have been paying more attention to her surroundings but at that moment, nothing in the world could exert enough force to rip her eyes away from the scene in front of her.

Momochi Zabuza.

_Shit. _

He was swaying dangerously on his knees, only held up by the two men on either side. One quivering hand was settled on the sword at his throat.

"Ha..ku.." he choked, every part of him quivering except his eyes. His eyes were the steadiest she's ever seen. Familiar eyes, belonging to a man resigned to his fate. "_Go."_

Sakura angled her body away from the scene, mind already made up. If Zabuza died here, she could breathe easier. While the concept of leaving a child—even if it _was_ Haku—in a dangerous situation left a bitter taste in her mouth, she comforted herself with the fact that Haku was _strong._ He did almost kill Sasuke or tried not to, according to Naruto; she vaguely recalled.

"Zabuza-sama!" She heard Haku cry, voice cracking in the middle. Her heart squeezed, and Sakura forced her eyes away from the scene. He was just a _child,_ her traitorous heart urged, his voice still carrying the lilts of boyhood.

She backpedaled, turning around and getting up. _I'm leaving, _she decided firmly.

"Oi! Who're you?" A voice interrupted her getaway. A short man, holding a short knife. "ZORI, we've got compa—"

Sakura surged forward, palm pressing into his mouth, her other hand going around his head until a muffled _crack!_ was heard and the man dropped quickly.

"_Motherfu_—" She huffed and cut herself off.

Decision taken out of her hands, she turned back around and dashed out of the bushes. She leapt out of Haku's panicked swipe and rushed the distracted crowd.

Sakura dealt with the leader first, unsheathing his own sword from its place on his hip to slit his throat. A clean cut that left a mess in its wake. Warm blood splattered across her arm but Sakura didn't pause to think about it. She ran straight for the men huddled around Zabuza.

The man on the right, the one with tattoos covering his entire left side attacked first, sword in hand. She dodged by flipping over and clearing their heads. From behind, she moved to cut through the man who attacked her. He dodged, letting Zabuza fall face-first. The second man scrambled away.

Sakura and the tattooed man took a breath to evaluate one another. He held his sword like a Samurai. All the training with none of the honour. When the man moved to strike again, Sakura made a split-second decision.

She used a Shunshin to disappear and reappeared behind the second man. She grabbed him by the back of his yukata and threw him into the swords-man, using the distraction to finish off both the men.

The clearing fell into an uneasy hush.

Sakura threw the sword down and wiped stray blood from her face, panting harshly. She took a minute to pull herself together and turned to the teenager eyeing her cautiously. "Are you hurt?" she asked him casually, crouching to flip Zabuza over.

"No." he answered curtly. His voice was curiously deeper than before. Silent feet inched closer to her.

She scanned Zabuza, viridian hands wandering across the wide expanse of his chest. He was semi-conscious, eye-lids fluttering rapidly and slurring incomprehensibly under his breath.

_Chakra paralysis._

He was recovering well. She'd give him another week before he was up and about. He was delirious too, a side effect of his condition. Sakura healed the bruises on his nose from his encounter with the ground and hesitated. She could speed things along but she was wary of the repercussions.

"What did those men want with you?" She asked in the silence.

"Blamed us for burning the business-man's ships."

"Gatō?" She clarified, straightfaced.

Haku nodded. "They accused me when they realized he was still bed-ridden."

They glanced at Zabuza who continued sleeping fitfully.

"I could heal him." She said, letting the words slip into the space between them.

He blinked, intelligent eyes analyzing her sentence. "But you want something in return." He completed.

Sakura nodded. "Take him and go. Leave this country."

"Why?"

"You are hired help, yes? By Gatō?"

Haku hesitated. He wanted to deny everything and question her motives but Momochi Zabuza was a known mercenary and they both knew it. Not to mention, no-one else in this entire country could afford to hire a mercenary anyway.

"Yes." He said finally.

"You won't be getting paid." She stated, "Not after this. There is nothing for you here."

A cool breeze passed through the clearing, ruffling both of their hair.

"You don't seem like you're from around here either, ninja-san" Haku stated quietly.

"No," Sakura replied, "I'm just passing through."

Haku tilted his head in thought. "You're quite far from any roads."

She huffed out a laugh, feeling embarrassed. "I have a terrible sense of direction."

He nodded, a small smile gracing his elegant face. "My name is Haku."

"Sakura."

Taking a leap of faith, Sakura went on and partially healed Zabuza's condition.

In Hansuke's case, his spinal cord was completely bisected and therefore impossible to recover. Zabuza, on the other hand, had a form of rapid muscle atrophy caused by chakra-mediated nerve stimulation. Nerves can never truly heal but muscles _can_.

She flooded his body with chakra, using energy stored in his liver to partially reconstruct his muscles. In a day or two, he would be able to move but he would still have to work to regain the muscle mass that he originally had.

"Make sure he eats really well for the next few months." Sakura instructed.

She stood, wiping her hands on her fraying pants. A wet patch stained one side of the pants from the crushed blackberries in her pocket. Her tank top also had small tears in it, blood and dirt staining it from her misadventures. The bandages holding her breasts in place were also starting to fray. She needed new clothes, something preferably in her size .

Haku pulled Zabuza close to his shoulder and got up.

"If you walk three mile that way, you'll reach the sea. Keep North and you will find the village." He directed, pointing behind her.

"Thankyou." She said, "Luck be with you."

"You as well."

_I hope you'll do the right thing and leave. _She mused, catching one last look at Haku's back.

* * *

Sakura found the sea three miles out, as Haku said. She washed away the blood on her skin as well as she could and spent about an hour just enjoying the breeze. If she turned her head North, she could glimpse plumes of smoke rising in the distance.

Instead of going to the village, Sakura changed directions and went South towards the harbour.

She turned left into the woods just before the coarse sand gave way to pavement. It took her a few minutes of hunting but finally she came across a safe stashed in some bushes.

The safe, the one _baby_ Sasuke—Sakura snickered—found yesterday while sabotaging Gato's ships. She'd had a clone stash it here when no-one was looking.

Sighing, Sakura knelt to brush the leaves away and inspected the tiny vault. It didn't look like it was booby-trapped.

She punched through the door, metal screeching as it caved like butter and tore the door clean away from the safe. Wincing, Sakura threw the shredded metal onto the floor and healed her tender knuckles.

Sakura's first order of business would clearly have to be investing in some heavy duty gloves.

She glanced inside the safe and whistled sharply, eyebrows raising in surprise.

_Well, well, well, lookie here._

There was enough money inside to either fund a large organization or at the very least a tiny nation.

_Which gives me a grand idea._

* * *

Sakura buried the treasure.

Well, not exactly.

She definitely set aside a hair-raising amount of money, stuck it in a waterproof bag and stashed it somewhere _just in case._ The tragic hilarity of her actions is that the amount she pilfered wasn't even a_ quarter_ of the cash that fell into her hands.

It left her with two options:

One, she could equally distribute the wealth among the villagers. It will help the villagers, true, but with Gatō still alive, he would be sure to notice that the villagers are suddenly much better off. She couldn't possibly bring attention to herself like that. Not to mention, Wave's shattered economy couldn't possibly survive on money alone. They needed trade and for that to happen, they needed the bridge complete.

Two, she could pay off Tazuna's mission debt. It could be a parting gift, one final good deed before she left. There would be questions. Tazuna may not accept the money, wary of Gatō's retribution. But it can be done.

_Gatō might still come after them regardless. _

_Goddamn it. _

Perhaps she should just off Gatō herself.

Sakura dismissed the thought quickly. It was too audacious a plan. She was not in a position to bring attention to herself. Her options were limited until the bridge was completed, neither could she make her daring escape, nor can she unburden herself of this treasure.

Therefore, she buried it.

All of it.

_Temporarily. _

She carried out one last task before she left.

The empty safe was deposited on the beach near the harbour for Gatō's men to find. Meticulously carved into its walls were the words _Keizoku wa chikara nari._

To continue is power.

A slogan used by Kiri rebel factions.

She retreated into the forest, using the beach as her guide back to the village.

The village centre—for lack of a better term—left a lot to be desired. It consisted of a semi-circle of five to six shabby wooden stalls held together by rusted nails and prayer. Most of the stalls were barren save for one with fish and another selling a wilted stack of cabbages.

Sakura hunted down a tailoring shop a little ways away from the huddle of stalls and was offered a faded cotton shirt meant for a man. It was left behind when he was unable to afford it, explained the sweet old lady running the place. She spied an inquisitive pair of eyes watching her from behind the lady's skirts.

"My grand-daughter." The lady chortled, "She's a little shy, but she's a great help around the house." She offered her another shirt in a daisy yellow colour that reminded her of Naruto.

She bought both shirts and made sure to press a little extra money into the lady's palm for her trouble.

The apothecary did not have any bandages. Sakura left without purchasing anything.

She doesn't know how, but somehow Sakura was able to circumvent Tazuna's house and return to the little brook near which she found her mushroom cache. She followed it upstream, continued onwards beyond the mushroom fields and reached a quaint little waterfall hidden into the mountains.

She left her effects in a little pile on the bank and dived into the cool liquid. When she finally re-emerged, there was an unexpected guest.

Sakura blinked in shock.

Mauve coloured chakra swirled lazily around a sizable tear in space. Peeking through the rip was a set of mis-matched eyes set upon a handsome, angular face.

"Sakura."

"_Sasuke?"_

* * *

Yes, I know!

A wild Adult!Sasuke appears!

How exciting!

Some thoughts:

In chapter 10, I've made a mistake and said Sarada means cooking oil. On further research, it seems you guys are right and Sarada actually means _salad._ As of now, I'm still unable to decide which is worse.

Fun fact: Sarada or _Sharada_ means autumn in Sanskrit. It's another name for _Saraswathi_, Hindu goddess of Art and Learning. _Which is WAY cooler than—_you know what, _nevermind._

Moving on.

In chapter 11, I asked you guys about ships.

Now, some of you are partial to Itachi as a love interest and I'm so sorry to burst your bubbles, but Itachi is _seventeen_ at this point in time (I followed canon-verse ages for everyone in the past.). Almost 5 years younger than our Sakura who is 23. A very disheartening discovery for me.

But other than that, you guys _thank you so much_ for all your input and love and feedback. I wish I could give each and every one of you a big 'ol hug.

I am just as excited as y'all to see where this fic goes.

Keep safe you guys, the world is a mess right now but great things are just around the corner. This too shall pass and all that jazz.

Let me know your thoughts on today's chapter.

All my love and till next time!


	13. Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

TW for a minor anxiety attack.

* * *

They spent a minute appraising each other.

Sakura stared blankly, never expecting herself to be caught in a stand-off of such ludicrous proportions. Water dripped off her hair and into the pool she was standing in, ripples flowing outwards from the liquid at her waist.

Sasuke moved first, averting his eyes. "Your clothes." He muttered. Chakra thundered quietly around the Window in Time, undulating with every minute shift in his posture.

Sakura laughed.

Tears gathered in the corner of her eyes. She wiped them away nonchalantly and pulled a shirt over her head, the yellow one she purchased this morning. Getting out of the water, Sakura put on her worn, navy sweatpants. They barely reached her shins. She piled her dripping hair into a loose knot on top of her head and turned to face Sasuke again.

"How did you find me?" She asked, finally.

"Your summons were able to get in touch with Naruto's." Sasuke answered, "He contacted me and we've been trying to find you since two days now." His eyes were mostly softened in relief, concern still marring his brows in a frown.

Sakura, on the other hand, was still confused. "And how did you track me to_ this_ dimension?"

"Naruto found a body." He watched as her eyes widened in horrified realization, hands lifting to cover her mouth.

"Mine?" She asked, voice cracking.

"Yes," He answered, "but younger."

A sob broke through Sakura's tightly clamped mouth. She turned away, the heels of her palms digging into her eyes.

"How fucked up is it—" she lamented bitterly, "—that I feel nothing but relief at being alive when my presence irrevocably _murdered _a child."

Sasuke chose to remain silent. A wise move on his part, she acceded. Above her, the sky remained bright, cloud-less and painfully azure. Idly, she wondered what Naruto was doing.

'_**Which**__ Naruto?_' She asked herself.

Either, she thinks. Maybe both.

To be around Naruto is to be home. And by the Gods, isn't that all she wants?

She inhaled deeply, concentrating on slowly unfurling the tight coil of emotions under her breastbone.

"Where are you?" Sasuke asked, once Sakura was able to pull herself together again.

"Wave." she replied, already tired of this , "From eleven years ago."

"Odd." He considered, almost to himself, head tilted in thought.

Sakura bristled, agitated quickly sparking up again, thoughts still stuck on her younger counterpart. Yes, odd indeed how she not only _replaced_ her younger self in the Space-Time Continuum but may have also inadvertently _killed _her as well.

She breathed through her nose.

Feelings of self-condemnation aside, it answered some of her questions. Specifically those pertaining to the whereabouts of her younger self.

_I suppose it's a small mercy to know that I didn't actually absorb her. _

Sakura's memories from her last days in her own time were spotty at best. The only thing she was certain of was her death.

_...I did die right? _

Was she on a solo mission, or was there a team? Who attacked her—_was _she even attacked? What caused the switch in the first place? A forbidden technique? Or was her death itself the trigger?

And what of her younger self?

How did she die? Did the switch cause her death or did someone on the other side stick around long enough to strike her down?

These answers only raised another multitude of questions and they left her feeling breathless. Sakura's head spun. She staggered and sank to the ground, putting her head between shaky knees and desperately trying to control her breathing.

When that didn't help, Sakura closed her eyes and tried to focus her mind.

_See, hear, feel, smell. See, hear, feel, smell._

_I see the trees. I hear the waterfall. I feel the wind. I smell the dirt. _

She repeated the exercise again and again until she was decidedly much calmer.

_I see Sasuke. I hear the birds. I feel the grass. I smell the ozone. _

Sakura waited for her steadily blurring vision to clear before returning to the conversation.

"You okay?" Sasuke asked softly.

_No. I'm a step, hop, jump away from a mental breakdown. _

Outwardly, Sakura nodded and then quickly changed the subject.

"I was on a mission, right?" She questioned slowly.

"...Yes."

"Was I attacked?"

"You don't remember?"

"No."

Sasuke's frown deepened. "Diplomatic mission to sand. You were ambushed by Sound rebels."

"_Sound?_" She asked incredulously. The news came completely out of left field. "What does Sound gain from _this?" _Sakura continued, gesturing, of course, to herself and her current surroundings.

Sasuke grunted in displeasure. "I'm working on it."

Ah, but she wasn't done.

"You said Sound was_ wiped out, _Sasuke. Your exact words were '_completely annihilated'."_

Sasuke sighed and squeezed the bridge of his nose. "I _know,_ Sakura."

He was handling this situation exponentially better than her. Which was an understatement in and of itself seeing as Sasuke's had voodoo-eyes since he was _twelve _and they've only gotten weirder ever since. Yeah, so he should be an expert in all things creepy and otherworldly.

_Then why would he call her situation__** odd?**_

She backed off, outwardly masking her worry as frustration. Knowing that arguing now would do neither of them any good.

"Fine. Just...let's just go home, yeah?" Sakura stepped forward and looked up expectantly.

The look on his face made ice slither down her spine. She dropped her head and roughly tugged a hand through her damp hair. "Dammit Sasuke, why not?"

Wordlessly, Sasuke lifted a fist and _knocked _on his _portal_. A heavy _clang_ resonated in Sakura's ears, simultaneously too loud and too quiet. An earthy thundering sound followed, the borders of the portal rippling in response to the disturbance.

She didn't know whether to laugh or scream.

"Maybe you shouldn't have found me." She thought out loud, eyes returning to the sky.

"_Sakura." _He berated softly. His voice carried so tenderly that Sakura's face crumbled with emotion.

She opened her mouth to shakily restart her breathing exercise before snapping her jaw shut with a decisive _clack. _

"Sasuke, I'm being arraigned."

"What?" He asked, suddenly alert, face split between indignation and alarm.

Sakura huffed in defeat, slumping into herself. "Kakashi, the _Loyal Hound _of Konoha that he is, ratted me out."

She spun on her heel, pawing through her meager belongings to produce the letter she'd been given, Hokage's crest proudly,_ glaringly_ visible at the bottom of the wrinkled sheet.

"As of now, the likelihood of me spending the rest of my stint in the past in a subterranean cell under Danzo's care is _extremely high_." She dead-panned, sticking the paper to the Barrier between worlds with some chakra. Sasuke peered closely at the letter and Sakura hid her shaking hands behind her back.

While Sasuke inspected the paper, she tried wringing out the water still dripping from her hair. When that was sufficiently managed, she turned to find another task to occupy her hands. Sakura paused to glance at Sasuke and—

"Why is it in your hands?"

Sasuke looked up, eyes widened slightly to show his surprise. The letter—_it was in his hands._

Sakura marched forward, fury driving her actions. Heedless to his warnings, she reached into the Barrier and pulled her hand back just as quick.

"Ah!" She hissed, clutching her throbbing fingers.

Sasuke fluttered around like a mother hen on the other side.

"I'm _fine." _Sakura interrupted his worrying. Healing chakra already working its magic, her digits flashed green before settling into their flesh-toned hue.

Sasuke frowned down at the paper in his hands before slowly sticking an edge into the invisible wall between them. They both leaned forward with bated breaths.

The paper came through, lilac flames licking its borders but not harming the artifact.

Sakura scoffed in incredulity. "_Wow."_

Sasuke hummed in reply and straightened up again. Sakura caught the letter and eyeballed it with barely concealed displeasure.

"Maybe we can do something with this." He contemplated, hand at his jaw. "I have to go now."

Despair crawled down her spine and settled in her stomach. Sakura took care not to show any outward reaction.

She nodded, "Okay."

Sasuke hesitated for a bit, looking like he was arguing with himself. He turned to her again.

Sakura turned to face him as well, belatedly registering the sweat on his brow. The portal must be draining him, she realized, considering how long he's kept it open.

"I _will _get you out of here." He spoke fervently. "But you are not powerless yourself."

He disappeared before she could get a word in edgewise.

* * *

Sakura returned to Tazuna's home very late. The house was dark when she arrived but someone was generously waiting up for her.

She tried to smile in vain but it fell flat.

"Nice meeting you here, on this lovely evening." Kakashi commented lightly.

Sakura sighed.

"Sakura-nee-chan!"

"Naruto, get back here!"

"It's a trap! Run!"

Sakura tried to dodge, but it was already too late. Paper tags bound her arms and legs together, others zapped chakra completely and thoroughly from her body. In her delirium, she only had enough wits about her to clamp down on a small sliver of chakra and smuggle it deep into her core.

Kakashi loomed above, blurry and doubled in number.

"—apologise, Sakura-san. This is for the best—"

"_No!" _

_Naruto. _

"Sensei!"

_Sasuke._

She couldn't remember what happened after that.

She should have left when she had the chance.

* * *

The worst part about this quarantine is that while everyone else complains about the boredom, my University is hunkering us down with way more work than I know what to do with. In other words, Neurology is hard and anyone who teaches it is unquestionably insane.

Apologies for this short, not to mention, _later that usual_ chapter. It was an intermediary scene that I was struggling to fill before the action picked up again. I hope the next chapter will be more interesting and also, _timely._

I also hope this chapter satisfied all the buzz created by the last one and also answered a few questions concerning the circumstances behind Sakura's time travel situation. The rest will be answered in due time because _plot_.

Sorry to everyone who wanted Adult!Sasuke to stick around. But fear not! He will return. ;)

People are still sending ship ideas? Not gonna lie, Saso-Saku is a fresh idea.

Reviews are very much appreciated. No, seriously. The last one had my sleep-deprived ass diving for the phone at 2 in the morning. And also, we are at 440 followers! Which is amazing because it is a _quite_ a lot more than my personal social medias will ever gain.

Till next time!

(Hopefully earlier than _this_ time.)


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